Books, Arts & Manners: A Conservative Mind

The Sword of Imagination: Memories of a Half-Century of Literary Conflict, by Russell Kirk (Eerdmans, 497 pp., $34.99)

A DECADE or so ago, I wrote in NATIONAL REVIEW that the most impressive thing about Russell Kirk was his continuing capacity to grow, and I adduced in support of that proposition the way he had enlarged his understanding since his first masterpiece—The Conservative Mind, originally published in 1953—by delving deeply into the Scottish Enlightenment. I repeat that assessment now, for his memoirs, his thirtieth and final book, record that growth and may be his best work.

FM

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Forrest McDonald

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The Sword of Imagination: Memories of a Half-Century of Literary Conflict, by Russell Kirk (Eerdmans, 497 pp., $34.99)

A DECADE or so ago, I wrote in NATIONAL REVIEW that the most impressive thing about Russell Kirk was his continuing capacity to grow, and I adduced in support of that proposition the way he had enlarged his understanding since his first masterpiece—The Conservative Mind, originally published in 1953—by delving deeply into the Scottish Enlightenment. I repeat that assessment now, for his memoirs, his thirtieth and final book, record that growth and may be his best work.