Russell Kirk: The American Cicero

Russell Kirk’s contributions to the conservative intellectual movement have scarcely gone unheralded. His founding of Modern Age and of The University Bookman, his long-running “From the Academy” column in NR, his syndicated column, his foundation activities, his private philanthropies, his personal University of Mecosta, and, above all, his books have been justly celebrated. “The American Cicero,” M. E. Bradford has called him, and the appellation seems entirely fitting.

Yet there is one truly impressive aspect of Kirk’s career that, as far as I am aware, has gone virtually unremarked: I refer to his capacity for continuing to grow, despite his age and attainments. To the not inconsiderable number of his admirers who, since the first publication of The Conservative Mind in 1953, have regarded Kirk as a veritable demigod, the observation may appear presumptuous. From another point of view it may appear to be almost a contradiction. Growth necessarily entails change, and Kirk’s subject matter is immutable truths. Moreover, in his writing as well as in the way he has chosen to live his life, he has adhered undeviating- ly to the principles he proclaimed to the world in that first book. Nonetheless, there has been a continuous evolution in his thinking that has broadened and deepened it and, into the bargain, made possible the resolution of a grave problem that plagued the conservative revival from the outset.

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Forrest McDonald

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Russell Kirk’s contributions to the conservative intellectual movement have scarcely gone unheralded. His founding of Modern Age and of The University Bookman, his long-running “From the Academy” column in NR, his syndicated column, his foundation activities, his private philanthropies, his personal University of Mecosta, and, above all, his books have been justly celebrated. “The American Cicero,” M. E. Bradford has called him, and the appellation seems entirely fitting.

Yet there is one truly impressive aspect of Kirk’s career that, as far as I am aware, has gone virtually unremarked: I refer to his capacity for continuing to grow, despite his age and attainments. To the not inconsiderable number of his admirers who, since the first publication of The Conservative Mind in 1953, have regarded Kirk as a veritable demigod, the observation may appear presumptuous. From another point of view it may appear to be almost a contradiction. Growth necessarily entails change, and Kirk’s subject matter is immutable truths. Moreover, in his writing as well as in the way he has chosen to live his life, he has adhered undeviating- ly to the principles he proclaimed to the world in that first book. Nonetheless, there has been a continuous evolution in his thinking that has broadened and deepened it and, into the bargain, made possible the resolution of a grave problem that plagued the conservative revival from the outset.