Donald Davidson's "Aunt Maria and the Gourds"

by John E. Rocha, Sr.

While studying at the University of Dallas in the early '90's, I was taught and influenced by a few notable professors, such as Janet Smith, Frederick Wilhelmsen, Wayne Ambler, Leo Paul de Alvarez, along with a few others.  Following Prof. Wilhelmsen after many class lectures back to his office or at least to the university mall, I was regaled with many stories about Catholic intellectuals of the 20th century.  In a few of those conversations two names came up more than once: Russell Kirk and M.E. Bradford. Little did I know that I would be reading Russell Kirk over the next 20 years later as well as referencing the American founding as understood by M.E. Bradford.

I did know who Prof. Bradford was at least physically on campus, because he was a large and distinguished man. On most days you could see him along with his white Stetson.  I hesitated for a while to introduce myself, but I soon stumbled upon him in the hallway and made my introduction. As I was interested in the American politics, it did not take Prof. Bradford long to ask me what I was reading and to let me know who I should be reading.  The conversations that I had with Prof. Bradford truly broadened my understanding of America's culture and that we did have one worth understanding and defending. One of the cornerstones in defending such culture was John Crowe Ransom and the Southern Agrarians. Over the years I have learned that it is not political writings as found in I'll Take My Stand, but the literary and imaginative works of these same writers that are the active approach to defending our culture.  The experience of the poetry, through verse, drama, or fiction allows us to inspire our children. For those of us who teach in our home or at a school, our students can, revel in not just in the terror of Achilles on the shores of Troy, or Aeneas' founding of Rome, but the long-suffering cause of culture, and the Republic in America's War Between the States.

The Haunted Souls of Readers

By John E. Rocha, Sr.

Pursuing a liberal education takes a lifetime. School may not be fun some of the time and for a few of us, all of the time, but what I have learned from Fr. James Schall, S.J. over the years is that a liberal education does not take place at school, but for most of us after we are outside of the university. In an essay entitled, “On Reading Books," Fr. Schall introduced me to writer, Christopher Morley and his second novel, The Haunted Bookshop. It was a book he had not heard of before and had just received as a gift. I soon wandered Amazon.com and found an inexpensive first edition. If it was good enough for Fr. Schall to mention in an essay; it was good enough for me to read...it took him over 80 years to discover the text, it would not have to take me that long.

The Haunted Bookshop is a book worth finding and reading; one that truly sparks the moral imagination. As the first novel that I have read by Mr. Morley, I believe it is a good place to begin reading his works and I look forward to my next Morley read. The end of World War I acts as the backdrop of novel, along with a true hope for peace led by President Woodrow Wilson both of these are brought to our attention by the protagonist, Roger Mifflin. Mr. Mifflin is the eccentric used book dealer, turned American hero, whose bookstore and residence above the store sits on Gissing Street in Brooklyn, NY.

On the opening pages, Mr. Morley draws the reader into the world of Brooklyn post WWI with vivd imagery and sounds of the day. The "remarkable bookstore" is described as "It was very different from such bookstores as he had been accustomed to patronize. Two stories of the old house had been thrown into one: the lower space was divided into little alcoves; above, a gallery ran around the wall, which carried books to the ceiling" (Morley 4). Unique and yet typical of most used bookstores that I have visited, it is described as wall to wall and floor to ceiling of books. I visit two such bookstores when I travel outside of Texas; When I visit the ancestral home of Russell Kirk in Mecosta, MI, I pay a visit to the local bookstore, The Mecosta Book Gallery. I have never left the store without at least one book that I am looking for and perhaps three or four that I did not realize were on my reading list. I always eye the "Kirk Section" for any that I do not own or perhaps a first edition. I can say that I did not discover the city of New Orleans in my youth, but rather through marriage. As I have spent time over the years visiting family and attending a conference or two, I make sure to have book money on hand, as I enjoy visiting a handful of book shops in the French Quarter. There are many shops to mention, but the one that you can always find a a surprise book or two within the budget is at Dauphine Street Books. I am "big" guy and I can barely move around in the shop, it is crammed with books, dust, and more books. In Houston, one does not have travel far to find two good book shops, 1/4 Price Books and the other is a hurricane Katrina transplant, Kaboom Books, which actually has two shops in the Heights, and they still have most of their books in storage. All three books shops come to mind when I first opened The Haunted Bookshop. All have serious, yet friendly proprietors, that a first time visitor may find too eccentric for society today. Each book shop still lacks what Morley gives the Haunted Bookshop, the "air" of what book shops were once were: "The air was heavy with the delightful fragrance of mellowed paper and leather surcharged with a strong bouquet of tobacco...There was an all-pervasive drift of tobacco smoke, which eddied and fumed under the glass lamp shades" (Morley 4-5).

Liberal Education: Alive and Well

By John Rocha

A blog posted earlier this year by John von Heyking, entitled “Top 5 Books on Liberal Education Published in the Last 35 years” at http://lehrman.isi.org/blog/post/view/id/323/ is a good read and moves one to think about the texts that he names; but are there any others? I have read and are familiar with 4 of the 5 named books: I am looking forward to reading is Everyone a Teacher by Mark Schwen.

There are two authors that I would like to recommend as an addition to the five listed by von Heyking: Marion Montgomery and Stratford Caldecott. Marion Montgomery can be considered the last of the 20th century Southern Agrarian movement who has written fiction, poetry, philosophical tracts, as well as literary and cultural criticism. He has been known as a Hillbilly Thomist in Southern literary circles and his most recent published work is entitled Hillbilly Thomist. The work that I recommend of Montgomery’s is The Truth of Things: Liberal Arts and the Recovery of Reality. Professor Montgomery traces the turmoil and chaos of today’s education beyond where Allan Bloom proposed, that of Rousseau, the Enlightenment thinkers and Nietzsche, but goes further back to the fourteenth century. If we have any hope of properly renewing education, we should seek the proper roots of the fall and Montgomery is a good guide for this examination.

The second scholar is Stratford Caldecott and his latest book, Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education. I cannot recommend this book enough. After reading it, I passed a couple of copies to friends who teach at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, and before long one was reworking geometry and while others led a couple of faculty symposiums over the text. In short, Caldecott reunites the purpose of education with the process of education and how it can be fulfilled in the liberal arts. I think both of these texts are worthy are adding

Those who are familiar with the resurgence of the liberal arts since the late 20th century knows there is more than one “little republic”, as von Heyking calls St. John’s College. I would heartily add the University of Dallas and Hillsdale College as additional republics that are prospering across America.

If you are interested in any of the books mentioned above can be found at http://astore.amazon.com/liberal-education-20