When Fay Vincent Jr. resigned as commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1992 after a majority of Major League Baseball owners issued a vote of “no confidence” and called for him to step down, he chose America and his friend George W. Hunt, S.J., as the primary venue for his thoughts on the matter.
George W. Hunt
The gift of reading: ‘it consoles, it distracts, it excites’
Books about books were of special interest to George W. Hunt, S.J., and so, in his honor, we reprint this Of Many Things column from Feb. 20, 1993.
Mere ink-flecks on a page
On the particular genius of F. Scott Fitzgerald
When Frank Sinatra wrote to Jesuits at America
In the spirit of Ecclesiasticus (44:1), let us now praise famous men: specifically Frank Sinatra.
Of Many Things: From December 12, 1987
One shaft of sunlight that has illuminated a rather gloomy year for most Americans has been the year-long celebration in honor of George Gershwin. When Gershwin died suddenly at age 38 in 1937, the novelist John O’Hara wrote in his typically hard-boiled-sentimental style: “They tell me George Gershwin is dead, but I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to.” Corny or not, O’Hara’s sentiments seemed to have been shared by many this year, as the many television specials, new recordings and stagings of Gershwin’s work attest. In fact, the 50th anniversary appears to be closing with a rush this December as one Gershwin gala crowds another throughout the country.
A Man of Disguises
Blake Bailey’s biography of John Cheever is a literary triumph in its own right.
Updike at Rest: Commentary
An appreciation of a Christian man of letters.
Ben Cramb, the Con Man
Allow me to presume that you are one of those mildly perverse people who finds delight in stories that run counter to your usual fuddy-duddy moral judgments offered in public If so then we know that there are several sure-fire kinds of narrative that never lose the naughty appeal of slumming with
