The distance between the administrations of Calvin Coolidge and Richard Nixon is calculable in sundry ways. Chronologically, it is forty-five years. Technologically, it is the distance from the Tin Lizzie to the moon—immense.
It must be the puritan in me that responds to the challenge to purify the language of the tribe. Presumably even the lowliest poet can assist in this job, acting like a small auxiliary filter in the water supply system.
Agnes Lynne considered that, at sixty-seven, she was young to be widowed, but she was surprised to find how many of her contemporaries had preceded her to this condition. It was as if, while Percy had been alive, the widows had tried to...
How pleased Mr. Jefferson would have been to share in these ceremonies at the University of Virginia. How proud, how delighted, how disturbed—how angry he would be.
Humor itself is the first problem and had best be faced bluntly. First and last, humor is that form of life and literature which cannot be taken seriously. Whatever the sense of humor is, the non-sense of it is making it serious. Yet making...
Until recently both the inner and outer disorders of megatechnic civilization were successfully covered by its massive constructive achievements. Despite two world-enveloping wars, despite the virtually total devastation of scores of big...
Like I’m telling you,” the sergeant said, “th’ kid could be anywhere. But he’s not here. So if you want to keep looking, go with the patrolman over there.”
EMMA: He always liked to have a fire. Especially when all three of us were up late at night. He said a fire made it seem like there were more of us. (laughing dully) He used to wish so for brothers and sisters. (A silence. She pokes the...
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the...
The choice of qualities of a nation’s heroes is a reliable index to that nation’s health. This is particularly true of political heroes rather than poets or actors or even the first men on the moon.
