The Gift of Fire - Softcover

Mitchell, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1888173947 ISBN 13: 9781888173949

Publisher: Akadine Pr, 2000

Synopsis

Twenty-odd years ago, Richard Mitchell, a professor at New Jersey’s Glassboro State College, set out on a quixotic pursuit: the rescue of the English language and the minds of those attached to the world by it. Donning cape and mask as “The Underground Grammarian,” Mitchell sallied forth upon his newsletter against the nonsense being spoken, written, and, indeed, encouraged by the educational establishment. (“One thing led to another,” as he tells it, “a front page piece in The Wall Street Journal, a proŞle in Time, and other such. Before it was over, The Underground Grammarian came to be, in the world of desktop printing, the Şrst publication to have subscribers on every continent except Antarctica.”) What began as a vivid catalog of ignorance and inanity in the written work of professional educators and their hapless students soon became an enterprise of most noble moment: an investigation, via mordant wit and Şerce intelligence, of “what we might usefully decide to mean by ‘education.’” The results of Mitchell’s inquiries are as stimulating today as they were when Şrst articulated. His project remains a telling explication of how, through writing, we discover thought and make knowledge. It is certainly the most drolly entertaining.

About this title

From Library Journal:

Mitchell, author of Less Than Words Can Say (Little, 1979) and editor/publisher of the Undergroud Grammarian, here analyzes the link between thought and moral action. In a series of chatty but superbly written essays, he argues that we must each accept responsibility for the development of our own sense of reason and judgment; we cannot leave it to some organic entity called "humanity." In this, Mitchell follows a path trodden by such luminaries as Kierkegaard, Gabriel Marcel, and Sartre. This is the way philosophy should be written: witty, substantial, and engaging. By all means read the title essay, with its send-up of intelligence tests. Highly recommended. Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Akadine Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1888173947
• ISBN 13: 9781888173949
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 188