JASON CHILTON MATTHEWS was an American renaissance man — composing poetry and music, fighting against Communism and for the self-determination of indigenous peoples — and he was the editor of The American Mercury, working there during the turbulent 1950s and 1960s. His home in McAllen, Texas — which he named Quinta Mazatlan, and from which he edited the Mercury — Continue Reading →
by Ken Freeland A review of Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine by Joel Kovel (pictured) (2007), Pluto Press, ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2570 5, Paperback $20.48 at Amazon.com AMAZON.COM likes to tell its book-buying customers which books other customers also bought who purchased the same book, and I typically glance at this unsolicited information with bemused Continue Reading →
by Patrick J. Buchanan “Is white the new black?” So asks Kelefa Sanneh in the subtitle of “Beyond the Pale,” his New Yorker review of several books on white America, wherein he concludes we may be witnessing “the slow birth of a people.” Sanneh is onto something. For after a year of battering as “un-American,” “evil-doers” and racists, and praise Continue Reading →
This recent piece from the Bibliophile Web site describes the famous “Hatrack” case in which the Mercury was literally “banned in Boston,” and its editor arrested on obscenity charges — see Mencken’s recollections below. ON APRIL 5, 1926, reporter and literary critic H.L. Mencken was arrested on Boston Common for selling a magazine that had been banned by the New Continue Reading →
Why and how the sexes are attracted to each other — a book by Nigel Barber offers science-based insights. review and notes by M.P. Shiel NIGEL BARBER’S The Science of Romance is so thought-provoking that I had a hard time sleeping (no, not for that reason!) after finishing it last night. It puts what was once in the realm of Continue Reading →