The Word from Porter Street, #5
This installment offers an “applied research” look at the end of the world, via Cotton Mather; I also read Isaac Watts’ “There Is a Land of Pure Delight.” Approximate length: 10 min.
View ArticleWord from Porter Street, #12
Happy New Year! A special “extended” installment includes a recap of my time at the American Antiquarian Society last summer, as well as a description of what I found in my research there. Reading:...
View ArticleThe Word from Porter Street, #13
In this installment, I go a bit “meta” in talking about my personal interest in hymns as a Christian and what it might mean to be not just a scholar who is a Christian but a “Christian scholar.”...
View ArticleThe Poetic Faith “Seminar”: An Introduction
I am now officially eighteen days into my first sabbatical. The cycles of euphoria, lethargy, manic productivity, and hubristic goal-setting have been rapid and slightly dizzying thus far. When I had a...
View ArticlePoetic Faith, Week Two: Practice, Practice, Practice (Theory)
This week has been very hot and humid in eastern PA, so I’ve been working in Lafayette’s Skillman Library (or, to borrow the great Michael Suarez’s phrasing, the Skillman) instead of my office. This is...
View ArticlePoetic Faith, 2016 edition: Introduction
Last summer, I devised an imaginary seminar titled “Poetic Faith” to guide myself through a mass of readings on topics related broadly to my research. I’ve found myself drawing on that reading...
View ArticleThe Embodied Life of the Mind: A Brief Improvisation
Between the time I finished my first book and came to the serious drafting stage of my second (note: I’m in that phase right now), I learned something vital about the writing life. It involves a mind...
View ArticleWhy Study Emily Dickinson at a Time Like This? (audio lecture)
Last week, I was honored to give a lecture sponsored by the Friends of Goddard Library at Clark University in Worcester, MA. The friends and the library staff were gracious, congenial, and intelligent...
View ArticleWhat I Did This Summer: A Report from Rare Book School
It’s been a while since I’ve written in this space, and I’m going to take the opportunity to talk about something I just did last week and have wanted to do for years: I took a course at Rare Book...
View ArticleInterview with the American Antiquarian Society
I posted this on social media recently, but here is the link to my interview on the American Antiquarian Society’s Past Is Present blog. Many thanks to Ashley Cataldo for a fun interview and the great...
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