From time-to-time I have re-arranged my books. I have one shelf in my office which now contains small books I have not yet read. They are almost all but not exclusively paperbacks. Here are five from amongst those ranks.
BTW: The lace often seen in these photos is a bedspread made by (if I recall correctly) my wife’s Italian grandmother. She came from the hill towns around Naples and settled in St. Louis.
Life of Dante by Michele Barbi, Paul Ruggiers, trans. and ed. (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1966, pb). Just 132 pp. total, I am hoping one day to get into this. I read The Divine Comedy a few years ago in Anthony Esolen’s translation, and hope some day to revisit that. Here is a link to a pricy hardcover edition on ABE. It has been republished by a UC imprint.
This would be a good companion to Christopher Dawson’s books. I am thankful to the late Drs. Doug Skopp and Howard Miller at SUNY Plattsburgh for their courses on Medieval history and literature. The Love of Learning and the Desire for God by Jean Leclercq (NY: Mentor-Omega, 1962, pb, 1960 Cdl. Spellman imprimatur). My copy is slightly beaten up and with yellowing pages. Originally published by Fordham U. Press in 1961, they republished it in 1982.
William Thomas Walsh was a prolific author. Here he puts together everything known about the first Pope into one book: Saint Peter the Apostle (Garden City, NY: Image, 1959, sc). Though I’d like to believe otherwise, I think I’m probably more like Peter than John.
I keep running across references to Fr. D’Arcy and his reputation for being deep. The Jesuit was well-known to Tolkien since they were both at Oxford. “Father D’Arcy, countering the interpretations of De Rougemont’s Passion and Society, argues that Eros (human passion) and Agape (divine love) need not be irreconcilable” (from the back cover). The Mind and Heart of Love; Lion and Unicorn: A Study in Eros and Agape by M.C. D’Arcy, S.J. (Cleveland: Meridian, 1962, pb).
Freedom, Grace, and Destiny: Three Chapters in the Interpretation of Existence by Romano Guardini (Chicago: Regnery Logos, 1965, pb, 1960 imprimatur). I am curious: Is the “John Murray, S.J.” the same person as the notorious John Courtney Murray, S.J.? This is, by Guardini’s standards, a rather large and dense book. Republished by Cluny.