Between 1890 and 1950 many high-profile artists and writers, mostly in England, converted to Catholicism. Beatrice Scudeler reviews a new book Converts, by Melanie McDonagh. The author takes a sociological approach and a biographer’s eye to fifteen artists and intellectuals who came into the Catholic Church during those six decades. For Scudeler, the most interesting question is, “What does it mean to think, make, and write as a Catholic?”

For further reading: Converts discusses the decline of conversions to Catholicism in the later half of the twentieth century. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, a professor at Emory University, bucked the trend, converting in 1995. She wrote in her “Conversion Story” (April 2000) that “An adult conversion to Catholicism—or indeed to any form of orthodox Christianity—is not an everyday occurrence in the American academy.” 

From the January issue: The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare makes the case that “Shakespeare’s theatrical education was weird, dangerous, working-class,” writes Matthew Gasda in his latest review. Author Daniel Swift argues that Shakespeare learned his trade in an unregulated and quickly developing London, where his art was “conceived of, practiced, and developed in homely, rough, dirty, unpoetic, and sometimes dangerous circumstances.” As a playwright, this scene is familiar to Gasda, who has has “staged theater underground in illegal squats or semi-legally in industrial lofts at the edge of Greenpoint.”

For further reading: Perhaps the emphasis on Shakespeare’s working-class roots will make his enemies rethink their characterization of him as an “ideological tool of Dead White English Man’s oppressive, imperial regime.” Unlikely, but for a defence of Shakespeare read “Shakespeare’s Millenium” (December 1999) by Edward T. Oakes, S.J.

 

Unusually for a First Things column, George Weigel has a television rather than a book recommendation this week: “If you’re going to do just one thing over the next six months to recollect what a marvel the birth of this country was—not to mention its survival into adolescence—you can’t do better than watching, or rewatching, the HBO miniseries John Adams.” The series movingly portrays the American founding through the eyes of “one of the greatest, if typically least regarded, of the Founders.”

For further reading: Walter McDougall wrote more on “How to Commemorate 1776” in last year’s May issue.

Upcoming Events

• February 1, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida: “Recovering the University’s Soul” ft. Bishop Robert Barron | Sarasota, FL. Register here.

• March 5, 2026: Annual D.C. Lecture: “Our Crisis is Metaphysical” ft. Mary Harrington | Washington, D.C. Details coming soon.

Until next time,

VIRGINIA AABRAM

Newsletter Editor