The Eternal City Abides

In 2021, readers of National Review lost the irreplaceable Gerald Russello, editor of The University Bookman and frequent NR contributor. In remembrance, Cluny Media, a publisher to whom Gerald was a trusted adviser, has produced two fine works in his honor: first, How Do You Do It? The Selected Works of Gerald Russello, edited by David G. Bonagura Jr. and featured in this NR podcast interview; and second, new hardcover editions of Francis Marion Crawford’s Saracinesca tetralogy dedicated to the memory and life in letters of Gerald Russello.

With kind permission from Cluny Media, the new introduction to Crawford’s Don Orsino (1892) is reproduced below. Crawford’s novels are set in the dying days of the Papal States and Italy during the Risorgimento. Fitting for Gerald’s day job as a securities lawyer, the plot of this second novel relies on a web of financial transactions in the center of Rome. Gerald could have kept his editing and writing in the moonlight. Despite the extra scrutiny he risked as a practicing lawyer in Manhattan, he brought his extracurricular work into the light of day. He was a lighthouse for young professionals. Gerald helped to keep alive the legacy of Russell Kirk, Orestes Brownson, and Christopher Dawson. Gerry Russello from Brooklyn coulda, shoulda, woulda lived as an intellectual in their mold. But he had a touch more Walter Bagehot in him than he liked to admit. He worked at the center of things and lived in the service of the permanent things.

SS

About the Author

Stephen Schmalhofer

Stephen Schmalhofer is a partner at a venture investment firm and the author of Delightful People.

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In 2021, readers of National Review lost the irreplaceable Gerald Russello, editor of The University Bookman and frequent NR contributor. In remembrance, Cluny Media, a publisher to whom Gerald was a trusted adviser, has produced two fine works in his honor: first, How Do You Do It? The Selected Works of Gerald Russello, edited by David G. Bonagura Jr. and featured in this NR podcast interview; and second, new hardcover editions of Francis Marion Crawford’s Saracinesca tetralogy dedicated to the memory and life in letters of Gerald Russello.

With kind permission from Cluny Media, the new introduction to Crawford’s Don Orsino (1892) is reproduced below. Crawford’s novels are set in the dying days of the Papal States and Italy during the Risorgimento. Fitting for Gerald’s day job as a securities lawyer, the plot of this second novel relies on a web of financial transactions in the center of Rome. Gerald could have kept his editing and writing in the moonlight. Despite the extra scrutiny he risked as a practicing lawyer in Manhattan, he brought his extracurricular work into the light of day. He was a lighthouse for young professionals. Gerald helped to keep alive the legacy of Russell Kirk, Orestes Brownson, and Christopher Dawson. Gerry Russello from Brooklyn coulda, shoulda, woulda lived as an intellectual in their mold. But he had a touch more Walter Bagehot in him than he liked to admit. He worked at the center of things and lived in the service of the permanent things.