Lee Oser

Dec 18, 2024 | rlo.acton.org | Lee Oser

On November 4, 1932, the Friday before the national election that would send Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the White House, T.S. Eliot spoke for the first time as the Norton lecturer at Harvard University.

Oct 9, 2024 | rlo.acton.org | Lee Oser

Of all the literary genres, satire is the most vexatious. Like Lionel Shriver herself, it is deliberately provocative. Likewise, it is adept at making enemies: Those with sensitive hides seem to resent having them flayed. In an age of media chaos, satire is easily confused with realism, and the satirist finds his best caricatures preempted by events. But satire nonetheless remains a substantial art form with a rich past reaching back to antiquity.

Jun 7, 2024 | acton.org | Lee Oser

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."Jonathan SwiftVarious Thoughts, Moral and DivertingIn the Winter 2023 issue of this publication, I addressed briefly the impact of Don Quixote on the author of A Confederacy of Dunces.

Apr 7, 2024 | literarymatters.org | Lee Oser

Ear Trainingby William H. PritchardPaul Dry Books, 2023. 382pp. $29.95Ear Training is a retrospective collection of writings by nonagenarian William H. Pritchard, the Henry Clay Folger Professor of English, Emeritus, at Amherst College. The author is an Amherst man through and through. He took the A. B.

Mar 27, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Lee Oser |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry

Arrivals and departures on the board,Traveling days linked with lilacs Whose redolence derails our sense of time. They bloom, as you know, between the embankmentAnd the parkway. In countless clusters, they peak From pungent wells beneath the midtown towers, Charged with resurrection. And the S-train Still weaves its subterranean routine,   And spirits climb into the city sun.  On Broadway: shops with helixing bouquets,Perennials in rows, and cherry treesWhere traffic islands deepen into parks.