Free Republic

John Symonds, who died on October 21 aged 92, was the prolific author of imaginative, quirky fantasies, though he was better known as the literary executor and biographer of the voluptuary, occultist and megalomaniac Aleister Crowley (1875-1947).Symonds met Crowley a year before his death, at a Hastings boarding house where the self-styled “Beast 666” was eking out his squalid final months as a spent mage on a diet of gin and heroin. Crowley’s will, which he apparently concocted himself, vested the copyright of his works in Symonds and made him his literary executor.Symonds was initially fascinated by Crowley, but as...

The kids can’t read. Such has been the implication, even the declaration, made by a wave of articles in recent years. But the statement needs some qualification: the kids in question are American; what they can’t read is entire books, especially literary fiction; and it isn’t just the kids in the first place. It would be the rare reader, especially of a site like Open Culture, who could resist feeling any despair when confronted with, say, a study finding that only five percent of college English majors tested could understand the opening of Bleak House. But the real problem is...

It’s an ominous scene. A warehouse crammed with books set to be sliced open, scanned and then pulped by an AI lab. Australia is fighting back. If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines. Artificial intelligence labs are in a new arms race to buy up millions of rare books, slicing them open, scanning the pages and pulping the remains — sparking concerns that the last remaining copies of out-of-print texts are being destroyed on an industrial scale....

The day has finally come. After a long legal battle, the House Oversight Project has begun releasing the audiotapes of Joe Biden’s conversation with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer back in 2017. As you may recall, Joe Biden fought tooth and nail for years to keep these recordings from coming out. And now, we know why. Not only do the tapes reveal that President Autopen disclosed classified information to his ghostwriter. But, they show that he knowingly did so. At several points in the recordings, Biden clearly mentions that he is discussing “classified” details. SNIP

What Students Read In 1776 | The Books That Shaped The Revolution Have you ever wondered which books shaped the American founding or ignited the American Revolution? What were the students at Harvard and Yale studying in 1776? In this historical analysis, I cover the books the founders would have studied at Harvard or Yale and provide a breakdown of those that would have shaped their thinking. From John Adams, Nathan Hale, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, to the famous Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Warren, and Sam Adams, we learn what the founders were reading on the eve of the American Revolution....

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Eric Metaxas’s bestselling book Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World. Since then, it has remained on the New York Times bestselling list and is currently ranked number two in nonfiction behind Maggie Haberman’s TDS offering, Regime Change.One would have thought a book published during the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence would be stocked and displayed prominently at Barnes & Noble. Instead, during his frequent appearances on Steve Bannon’s War Room program, the author testifies that the nation’s leading storefront bookseller doesn’t typically have copies on...

For over a century, post-modern critics have insisted that literature must be liberated from the stifling realm of moralism in order to become truly authentic in its artistic approach. The various platitudes in this vein have been prolific: “Morality ruins creativity,” “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” or the proposition of “art for art’s sake,” which all seem less as genuine insights into the faculty of human creativity and more as rhetorical shields against difficult questions relating to the nature of truth. In our own contemporary age, the argument has at least partially mutated, but it has never...

Hours before Haruki Murakami's new book was set to go on sale in Japan on Friday, dozens of fans gathered outside a major Tokyo bookstore for a special event to get their first copies as soon as the clock struck midnight. “The Tale of KAHO” is the Japanese author's first full-length novel featuring a lone woman protagonist, according to Shinchosha Publishing Co. “Kaho, a picture book author, is just an average young woman. But truly bizarre things start happening around her,” Murakami said in a brief message posted on the publisher’s campaign website. “I wrote this novel as I put...

Yesteryear opens by introducing its narrator, Natalie, a 32‑year‑old influencer who amasses millions of followers by posting about her pioneer‑like lifestyle. Unbeknownst to her audience, staff keep the household running, her marriage is strained, and her children hate being filmed. One day, she wakes up in a place that looks like her home, except it’s the early 19th century. As the story develops, Natalie proves anything but content. She meets her husband, Caleb, at a church group. After they marry, she finds herself pregnant at 20 (and with a husband more of a buffoon than she expected). I left Yesteryear...

We updated this list as part of the the Best of the Best Books Reading Challenge! Join the challenge now! Very short novels have a special magic—not least because, not to be morbid, you can simply read more of them before the inevitable heat death of the planet (or similar). I previously wrote about great contemporary novels under 200 pages, but now it is time to turn my attention to my favorite short classics—which represent the quickest and cheapest way, I can tell you in my salesman voice, to become “well-read.” A few notes: Because the “contemporary” list surveyed novels...

At thirty-seven, Ned Dougherty seemed to have it all: a Mercedes-Benz, a private jet, and a well-known nightclub in the Hamptons. Then he met death, and nothing was ever the same. On July 2, 1984, after a fight with a business associate, Dougherty collapsed on the sidewalk. He felt like he was falling into a dark, endless pit. Medical records show he had respiratory and cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for an hour and six minutes. “I was literally dead in every sense of the word at that point,” Dougherty told The Epoch Times. “And my journey on the...

Very interesting video about the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier that sank in 1942 at the Battle of Midway.

We’ve been having a debate about “book bans” in recent years, but given the steep decline in student literacy, the deeper question is how any child would even notice whether a book is available in a school library. The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford recently published an eye-opening study documenting steep declines in student test scores, especially in reading. Over the past 10 years, reading scores have declined in 83% of America’s school districts. What looked like a COVID-driven catastrophe is instead part of a long-running trend. Reading scores were falling at a similar clip prior to the pandemic, from...

I've only just begun...and I just have to say this is a "must read" especially this year! Not a quick read, but compelling, and a fabulous detailed history that none should ignore. Prof. Turley is thorough and thoughtful. We are going through troubling times these days, and back before the ratification of our Constitution, there was much turmoil right here while the people worked on forming a system of government. Fabulously done! I have many other things to do, but I can't put it down. So...I guess I'm reading for a while.

On a search to answer the question "Who started the Great War?" the author details his encounter and subsequent journeys with a mysterious stranger - journeys not through towns and countries but through time. This spirit, whom the author names "Mered," - meaning "Rebellion" - acts as a guide and interpreter of many epochs and episodes of human history, explaining how deep are the troubles that bring about conflict, from the interactions of two individuals to the mutual destruction of nations. - Summary by E. Sharp --- Garet Garrett (February 19, 1878 – November 6, 1954), born Edward Peter Garrett,...

VIDEONot only did Project Veritas board member Matt Tyrmand act as the ringleader to backstab James O'Keefe, he also did the same to President Donald Trump. In this video you can see that although Tyrmand was praising Trump in March 2022, he turned around by this February to viciously attack Trump. As a result, that grifter Tyrmand is in the process of being SHUNNED for all eternity by real conservatives. Oh, and don't be surprised to see Tyrmand continue his grift as an MSNBC commentator in the near future.

William Holmes McGuffey (September 23, 1800 – May 4, 1873) was an American professor and college president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, one of the nation's first and most widely used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.

Awhile back, I covered U-166. A submarine rather famous for her sinking in the Gulf of Mexico. And, of course, the way her wreck is so deeply buried on the bottom. Today, we'll be looking at another U-Boat lost off the American coast. This time the East Coast, in the form of U-576. A much smaller Type VII boat, though far more intact than her larger cousin. This submarine was sunk in...strange circumstances, to say the least. Leaving a mostly intact wreck on the bottom, in the modern day. One with all the features of her class still recognizable, at...

Video intro: The Epstein Files have revealed something no one saw coming: Jeffrey Epstein was working for the KGB! No, you're not going crazy! The (((mainstream media))) thinks you're dumb. Join me as we take our first dive into the 3 Million pages that were released and why all the people who want to "move on" from Jeffrey Epstein, share certain, defining qualities.