10/25: The Book Gallery with James Panero

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Dear John,

Although you know Russell Kirk as the author of The Conservative Mind and the godfather of the conservative intellectual movement, did you know that his bestselling book was actually a work of fiction? His Old House of Fear is considered one of the best Gothic horror novels written by an American. And Kirk’s short stories are anthologized right alongside the twentieth century greats. Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and T. S. Eliot all considered Kirk one of the masters of the genre.

As for Kirk, he believed that Gothic horror was a unique medium for the moral imagination and an inherently conservative literary genre. Why did he think this? What did he see in the macabre that lent itself to the moral imagination? What is conservative about the haunted? How does his own fiction bear this out?

On October 25, Bookman editor and principal Book Gallery host, Luke Sheahan, will be joined by Executive Editor of The New Criterion James Panero and Hollywood screenwriter Adam Simon to discuss these questions. Panero wrote a new introduction to the 2019 Criterion edition of Old House of Fear and Simon has many horror thrillers to his name.

Please join us on the next episode of the Book Gallery on October 25, 7 p.m.—just in time for Halloween—as we explore this aspect of Dr. Kirk’s work.

To complement that theme, this month’s Classic Kirk essay is “The Canon of the Ghostly Tales,” which Kirk wrote as an introduction to the almost-entirely unknown stories by his friend Basil Smith, a Canon of York Minster:

“We met in 1949—providentially, I believe. Wandering about York between trains, late on a somewhat sepulchral day, I happened to enter the little medieval church of St. Martin-cum-Gregory, in Micklegate, near the River Ouse, and admired the painted glass in its windows. Then I scurried off to catch a train to Edinburgh; but I forgot my walking-stick, which I had leaned against a wall of the church porch. From my Scottish residence, I wrote to the rector of the larger ancient church of Holy Trinity, Micklegate, who had St. Martin-cum-Gregory in his charge also. . . . He posted my stick to me and invited me to call when next I might visit York. That I did, and so commenced one of my closest and most rewarding friendships."

We hope you enjoy this special presentation on Kirk’s exercise of his own moral imagination, following in the footsteps of a distinguished literary tradition, to create masterful works of fiction.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey O. Nelson, Ph.D.
Executive Director & CEO

Support The Kirk Center

The Russell Kirk Center

PO Box 4

Mecosta, MI 49332

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