Monday, January 06, 2014

Unsanctioned Voice; Garet Garrett, H.L. Mencken, Gay Talese, Sinclair Lewis, John Birch Society

Click here for the previous post about Unsanctioned Voice.

Chapter I tells the story of how Bruce Ramsey discovered Garet Garrett at age 16 - by finding a copy of People's Pottage (included in a 12 book set (by various authors) known as "One Dozen Candles") in a John Birch Society bookstore. He read the words that began the first essay of People's Pottage and was hooked. There are many such stories about People's Pottage from those who made similar discoveries.

One Dozen Candles


Ramsey's footnote lists the other 11 "candles." He notes the irony of the John Birch Society selling a book written by a man who had been a member of the mainstream press.

Chapter 1 also contains quotes about Garrett from the writings of Gay Talese and H.L. Mencken.

Sinclair Lewis depicted a fascist America in his 1935 book, It Can't Happen Here. According to Ramsey (p. 4) Lewis "named Garrett as one of the handful of writers that such a regime would surely throw in prison."

Chapter 1 briefly gives Garrett's views on the Federal Reserve, the Austrian school of economics and public education. Footnote 6 (p. 5) refers to an essay about the state of public education entitled, "Our Leaning Schoolhouse" that was "held by Caxton but never published." I definitely would like to read this essay and hope that Caxton decides to publish. Perhaps Ramsey has read a copy. This summary of Garrett's views is too vague to be useful here.

Chapter 2 is a narrative containing bits and pieces of Garrett's youth and young adulthood.

Click here for a discussion of Chapter 3.

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Locations of visitors to this page