Buckley’s Mix

Chesterton

He is both the most overrated and the most underrated English writer. That’s because “he was never deeper than when he was superficial,” writes A.N. Wilson.

Where are the GOMs?

Somerset Maugham’s Cakes and Ale described how a writer might acquire eminence through longevity, as the Grand Old Man of English letters. Maugham had the middlebrow Hugh Walpole in mind. Since then we’ve seen more worthy GOMs, Bertrand Russell and Malcolm Muggeridge, people to whom we deferred on the quesitons of the day, people whose opinion mattered, [...]

John Updike R.I.P

Over at NRO Updike’s novels are recalled fondly. I won’t miss them. It wasn’t so much that they dealt with ordinary life–they’re grandiose in theme, compared with Carol Shield’s minimalism. It’s rather that one didn’t see in Updike a moral core of compelling interest. “Yes, that is just how things are, here in Stamford, in [...]

Rabbie Burns II

The 250th anniversary of his birth today, and nothing of Burns on WETA, that I heard in any event. Mozart instead, as this was his birthday too. After listening to Mozart for a spell I feel just as moved as if I had heard a talented typist give a concert on a Remington. When I [...]

Rabbie Burns

Sunday is the 250th anniversary of Burns’ birth, and a good time to ask why we should care. His poetry seldom rises higher than the level of amusing doggerel, and in his personal life he was the very model of poets-behaving-badly. At school, we were made to memorize the poetry because (gag me) it was [...]