John Cogley was once called “the most prominent American Roman Catholic journalist of his generation.” The onetime executive editor of Commonweal also played a key role in the election of J.F.K.
Books
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Why Thomas Merton was suspicious of psychedelic drugs
Aldous Huxley convinced me to try psychedelic drugs. Thomas Merton gave me a healthy suspicion of them.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Father Hootie McCown: Flannery O’Connor’s Jesuit bestie and spiritual advisor
James Hart “Hootie” McCown didn’t just have an amazing nickname. He was one of Flannery O’Connor’s best friends and spiritual advisors.
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
My friend Flannery O’Connor, the most honest person I ever knew
In this article from 1979, a Jesuit priest recalls his friendship with Flannery O’Connor.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
‘Death of a Salesman’ turns 75. And we’re still haunted by Willy Loman.
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” which turns 75 this year, was a huge hit by any commercial or critical standard. In 1949, it pulled off an unprecedented trifecta, winning the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award, the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. So attention must be paid!
Posted inArts & Culture, Television
Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ is a solid adaptation of the books. But it could use some religion.
“3 Body Problem” is an imaginative Netflix adaptation of Cixin Liu’s trilogy of sci-fi novels—and yet is mostly true to the books.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Patrick Leahy, Senate stalwart
In ‘The Road Taken,’ Patrick Leahy’s deeply personal new memoir, he writes lovingly about his family, his Catholic faith and his home state but seems focused largely on describing the Washington, D.C., that was—and what it has become.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Flannery O’Connor’s sacramental vision
Jessica Hooten Wilson builds ‘Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Why Do the Heathen Rage?’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress’ around the previously unpublished manuscript pages of O’Connor’s third novel, which was never finished.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: In his latest book, Christian Wiman looks despair in the face
In ‘Zero at the Bone,’ Christian Wiman offers a prismatic series of 50 chapters (52, counting the mystical zeros at the beginning and end) featuring essays, poems, theological reflections, personal reminiscences and literary analyses.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Elizabeth Cullinan, the ‘criminally under-read’ bard of the Bronx Irish
Elizabeth Cullinan’s literary output was not prodigious—but her memorable characters and close attention to the Irish-American culture in which she lived made her a prominent fiction writer in the ’70s and ’80s.