I’m having  a splendid time with Edmund Wilson’s book about the literature of the Civil War, with the strange title of ‘Patriotic Gore’.  It comes from a song of the Confederate South, “Maryland, My Maryland”: “Avenge the patriotic gore that …

On August 13, 1837, in a sermon he preached at the Spring Creek Campground, six miles west of Springfield, Illinois, the Reverend Peter Akers predicted that a great civil war would put an end to human bondage in America.

He …

Finding a book you really like is great, but finding a whole series is even better. Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret — these characters all feel …

Everybody’s got a lot of reading time nowadays, and I find it’s an especially good time for me to make a decision about all these books I have kicking around. No more “Maybe I’ll read that someday.” It’s either read …

I had fun reading my Uncle Nat’s journals, which my cousin Max thoughtfully dropped off at the nursing home where I was recuperating. It’s a chance to sit down with my beloved uncle once again and hear what he’s doing …

This is an account of my bout with pneumonia and staph, which, so far as we know, was not related to the Covid pandemic.

When I came down with the flu in February, I followed my usual procedure and went …

I’m re-re-reading Ernie Pyle’s two books ‘This is Your Wat” and “Brave Men, Brave Men.’ I’m not given to hyperbole, but I would like to say, on this third reading, that Ernie Pyle, in his quiet, unpretentious way, is one …

My New Year’s resolutions are the same every year. I have two.

The first is never to be annoyed at the bad manners of others. I know, I know; it’s impossible to keep. But it gives me the right attitude. …