For some time, the news media have been reporting how school and public libraries are under siege – from the book banners, the right-wing zealots, and those crazy fundamentalist wackos. (To be fair, when the news media start citing what objections people have, the reports tend to get almost deliberately vague.) This week, when I saw the story “Why I quit as a school librarian,” I expected more of the same. That’s not what happened. See former librarian Nina Welsch tell her story at UnHerd.
Speaking of news media, the so-called news deserts are spreading. Mainstream media in general are in serious financial trouble, including big media names like the Washington Post. Sara Fischer at Axios gives a rundown, if not an explanation for why.
Writing for the blog at Slant Books, William Cain, a professor of English at Wellesley College, tells a story of how he first encountered a 1923 poem by Wallace Stevens, entitled “Death of a Soldier.” Stevens encapsulated history in that poem (included in the poet’s first published collection) that is rather wonderful and well worth exploring.
More Good Reads
Art
Doreen Fletcher’s Early Paintings – at Spitalfields Life.
These marks – Sonja Benskin Mesher.
Exploring the rise and fall of British architectural sculpture – Roger Bowdler at The Art Newspaper.
Israel
‘The first premeditated social media war against a people and a nation’ – Alan Rosenbaum at The Jerusalem Post.
Campus Protests
Anti-Israel Protesters Arrested at Stanford after Breaking into President’s Office, Injuring Officer – Zach Kessel at National Review.
Culture
We Have Been Subverted – Ali Hirsi at The Free Press.
The verdict boosted Trump – Lionel Shriver at The Spectator.
Poetry
Monday Morning’s Cupboard – poem by Kate Gaston at Rabbit Room Poetry.
Approaching Zero – poem by A.M. Juster at The Hudson Review.
“To a Mouse” by Robert Burns – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Writing and Literature
Who Was Q. Patrick, the Golden Age Mystery Author? – Curtis Evans at CrimeReads.
Rise of the Ghost Machines – Brian VanDyke at The Millions.
What Caleb Carr Taught Me about the Families We Make – Zack Budryk at CrimeReads.
One Hundred Years of Obscurity – David Heddendorf at Front Porch Republic on The Rector’s Daughter by F.M. Mayor.
Faith
The Least of My Children’s Accomplishments – Tim Challies.
3 Waves That Have Shaped Evangelical Churches (and a 4th on the Way) – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.
American Stuff
Cross-Channel Trip: A report from Normandy – A.J. Liebling at The New Yorker (June 23, 1944).
Overture from Handel’s Messiah – Boston Baroque
Painting: Magdalen Reading, by follower of Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521), The Courtauld, London.
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