Letters

Writing and the Right

Adam Bellow’s cover piece, “Let Your Right Brain Run Free” (July 7), argues compellingly that without engaging the arts, conservatives’ political efforts are doomed to fail — a prediction likely to prove only too true — and rightly notes that conservatives have failed to put in place the kind of structural support that could help young, right-leaning artists. Writing programs, fellowships, prizes, and the rest would no doubt be a boon. However, since, as they say, books beget books, much good could also be done simply by pointing potential conservative storytellers to masters of the art (beyond J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, and Walker Percy, who, though vital, often seem to be the only worthwhile novelists conservatives have heard of). There are significant strains of conservative thought in mystery and crime fiction, where the problem of evil is paramount. Try P. D. James.