Hello John,

George Orwell famously reminded us of the connection between language and truth. Writing, in particular, has a moral dimension. Conversely, the corruption of language in our time is a grave threat because, as the historian John Lukacs put it, “The corruption of speech involves the corruption of truth, and the corruption of words means the debasement of speech which is the debasement of our most human and historic gift.”

For the second consecutive year, the Kirk Center held a workshop for young professionals on “Writing and the Moral Imagination” that joins together the themes of character and composition, the virtues and the responsibility of the writer as a conservator of language, norms, culture, and our inherited patrimony of order, justice, and freedom.

It is frequently said that many conservatives neglect the creative side of culture. While that has never been true at the Kirk Center, we are happy to be able to offer this specific workshop for a range of writers seeking to deepen their appreciation of the chief habits of moral excellence and the practical ways in which they are essential to the task of writing. 

Dr. David Hein, the Kirk Center’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow, began with a lecture on the thought-provoking topic of “Writing as a Moral Act,” and then led discussions based on reading from the excellent book The Virtues: A Very Short Introduction. Participants wrote several writing prompts over the weekend, getting constructive feedback from Dr. Hein and the group along the way.

This year’s seminar included a panel on publishing with three experienced and successful writers whose work is widely published. Two of them are alumni of our Wilbur Fellows program, Ashlee Cowles and James Matthew Wilson, and the third is a current Wilbur Fellow, Dylan Pahman. They, along with yours truly, spoke on how the book trade works for fictional and nonfictional works, poetry and the small publishing houses, and essays for journals, respectively, and suggested potential publishing outlets and approaches to pitching writing projects. 

The weekend went very well as the following comments indicate:

“I appreciated the caliber of the discourse and participants. It engaged in elevated thought, informing and inspiring growth in terms of Christian, moral, conservative, and professional development.  Networking and hospitality offered a genuine sense of warmth, belonging, and encouraged investment in our shared bonds.”

“The seminar was most valuable for rekindling the spark that is a genuine love of writing (which can so often be snuffed).  The level of hospitality offered by the Kirk Center was unprecedentedly high.”

“The Kirk Center is marvelous! It embodies the ideas and principles so many other outfits treat only as ideals.”

Over the past few weeks, Kirk Center intern Anya Van Arnam, from Texas, not only assisted at the Writing Workshop, but worked in the archive cataloging the “miscellaneous” correspondence boxes. She completed the years 1950-1964, and the list of names stretched to 55 pages! Thank you, Anya, for your cheerful labors and best wishes for your senior year at the University of Dallas!

In a recent University Bookman essay on Henry Luce, John Rodden surveys the main candidates for most influential journalist in American history. He argues that a “powerful and persuasive case can be advanced for…the founder and publisher of the most famous magazine ever launched in America, which boasts a remarkable history of publication that continues to this day: Henry Robinson Luce (1898-1967), the co-founder (with Briton Hadden) and guiding genius and impresario of TIME.

“The story of TIME—the flagship of a magazine empire that included Fortune, LIFE, and Sports Illustrated—cannot be told apart from the life story of Luce himself, its main founder, business manager and publisher, and presiding visionary. Luce’s publications became fixtures in the nation’s life and changed Americans’ lives.”

In fact it was Luce who published an important review of Kirk’s The Conservative Mind in the July 4th, 1953, edition of TIME. That review cemented Kirk’s burgeoning influence and forever changed his life and career trajectory.

Incidentally, to our surprise, Time pulled from its archive a review of Kirk’s Academic Freedom and featured it in a newsletter to subscribers this summer. You can read the review here. University Bookman editor, Luke Sheahan, described the divergent opinions on that topic of academic freedom between Kirk and William F. Buckley Jr. at the beginning of this episode of “Saving Elephants Podcast.”

Speaking of the University Bookman, its editors are pleased to announce that our “Book Gallery” webinars are now available on YouTube. You can find the most recent one, Liberty Lost: The Rise and Demise of Voluntary Association in America Since Its Founding, with Robert E. Wright here:

We'll have more to say about the University Bookman in our next letter.

In the meantime, I will close by inviting you to Save the Date and join us for the First Annual Richard D. McLellan Prizes event as we honor the best current work advancing the fundamental American principle of free speech. Set your calendars for Thursday, December 5th, 2024, for the inaugural McLellan Prizes at the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. More details coming soon!

Sincerely,