Coming soon: Issue 11 of Athenaeum Review!
Including articles on the Saint-Simonian avant-garde; artists Anna Sebastian and Sean Scully; Theodor Adorno’s unbuilt house in Pacific Palisades; slavery in the urban South; presidents and tycoons; Lincoln and Jefferson; a job market memoir; Dante on television; Sicilian puppet theater; the underrated Harry Crews; the figure of the older human being; and much more!
Front cover: Detail of Anna Sebastian, 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘞𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘺 𝘈𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘋𝘰, 2024, mixed media on paper mounted on ply, 170 x 150 cm. Courtesy the artist and Verdurin, London.
In the meantime, you can read issue 10 online, download a PDF copy of issue 10, or order the printed issue 10 here.
Athenaeum Review publishes essays, reviews, and podcasts by leading scholars in the arts and humanities.
From Ashes to Lessons
Remembrance is not just about looking backward. It’s about looking forward. It is a commitment to shaping a just and equitable future.
Building to Inspire
Some of the most important spaces on campuses are the spaces in between the buildings, the walkways, plazas, green spaces. For the buildings within the Athenaeum to be successful, they need to be connected to these exterior spaces.
The Dragon’s Pearl
Unlike the dragons of the West, the dragons of East Asia are benevolent, compassionate creatures, combining the best attributes of several animals: the talon of the eagle, the head of the lion, and the body of the serpent.
Mutability and Mortality
Perhaps my favorite in this set of personal homages is “Ode to the Arts and Humanities Staff” which sings the praises of the otherwise unseen and unsung heroes, the clerical and support staffs that keep universities and academic departments running.
Translating the Chinese Diaspora
For many of the characters in Yan’s stories, particularly those who find themselves alone in a foreign land, the feeling of always wishing to be elsewhere captures a state of longing that appears to be the most permanent fixture of their interrupted lives.
The Two Lives of a Poet
There are passionate and delicate love poems that bring the landscape to life: “with blown pine needles the wind / writes love’s calligraphy upon the snow.”
Brian Fairbanks, Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever. Hachette Books, 464pp., $32.50 cloth.
Steven Hyden, There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland. Hachette Books, 272pp., $32 cloth.
Harriet Baker, Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann. Allen Lane, 384pp., £25 cloth.