"Joseph Blotner will be remembered as a giant of American literary scholarship. His editions of William Faulkner's works, especially the Uncollected Stories and Selected Letters, remain the standard, and his biographies of Robert Penn Warren and Faulkner are landmarks. The latter especially is unsurpassed; not only is it the best Faulkner biography, but it is the finest biography I have ever read. Lucky for us, Blotner is equally adept at telling his own story in his brisk and engaging memoir. His early years are surprisingly compelling, as Blotner wisely focuses on his time during World War II as the bombardier of a Flying Fortress, being shot down just shy of No Man's Land, and experiences as a POW. But it was the description of his famous friendship with Faulkner at the University of Virginia that I really looked forward to—and Blotner does not disappoint. Who could not delight in the intimate details?—how Faulkner almost wasn't invited (when UVA's President Colgate W. Darden bristled at Floyd Stovall's argument that Faulkner 'would add prestige' to the University), how Faulkner 'radiated power' like 'great tenors and bullfighters' do, or how—upon discovering that Blotner and fellow professor Fred Gwynn had been pilots as Faulkner had during WWI—Faulkner hosted a dinner for the 'hangar-flying squadron,' appointing himself Chief. The friendship is beautifully illuminated and resonates throughout the remainder of this fast-paced memoir—Blotner's unfortunate departure from the University of Virginia, the publication of his biographies, his travels, and his eventual return to Charlottesville. The book ends appropriately with Blotner's realization that he didn't feel as Yeats had, 'that I would be content to live it all again, but telling part of it might not be a bad way to spend some of what was left.' How fortunate we are that he did.

Peter Viereck may have won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry in 1949, but his most lasting impression may be as an advocate of the culturalist and somewhat communitarian—and hence highly disgruntled and typically pessimistic—strand of modern conservative thought. Viereck complements thinkers like Irving Babbitt, Russell Kirk, and Michael Oakeshott and emphasizes themes such as the risks of rupture, the need for moral whole-ness and engagement, and the virtue of virtues. In the 1949 study that lies at the center of this volume, Viereck uses the choices of a decidedly unpopular conservative figure from a century earlier—Prince Metternich—to investigate not only many features of the conservative thinking of the mid-19th century but also the strategic choices made at what Viereck considers to have been a (to use an anachronistic term) critical juncture in modern left/right history, when the conservatives and (classical) liberals of that era failed to join together in defeating the nationalism that later, in his view, spawned fascism. Viereck's definition of conservatism is obviously what Americans would today consider a 'European' version, more culturalist, periodically skeptical of free markets, quick to reach for the word 'crisis' even amidst the materially booming post-1945 years, and pessimistic about the social and cultural trends that have often left modern liberals and libertarians unconcerned. This slender essay is joined by one in which Viereck considers the dire postwar conditions of his brand of conservatism in America, as well as substantial appendices and a particularly interesting interpretive essay by the prominent political theorist." Reviewed by Gerard Alexander, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

Viereck is one the principle theoreticians of conservatism in modern American political thought. In this classic work, Viereck undertakes a penetrating and unorthodox analysis of that quintessential conservative, Prince Metternich, and offers evidence that cultural and political conservatism may perhaps be best adapted to sustain a free and reasonable society. According to Viereckas definition, conservatism is not the enemy of economic reform or social progress, nor is it the oppressive instrument of the privileged few. Although conservatism has been attacked from the left and often discredited by exploitation from the right, it remains the historic name for a point of view vital to contemporary society and culture.