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moral psychology alongside Kirk’s chapter on Adams and discussed which aspects of Adams’ thought were conservative and which were not. Author James Person spoke on Adams in relation to Russell Kirk, and made a Kirkian case for Adams’ conservatism.

On the final night, attendees held a parliamentary-style debate on the topic, “Resolved, That the American Revo-lution Was Conservative.” At the end of this lively session, which lasted past midnight, the body was evenly split, with half of attendees viewing the American Founding as a preservation of the past, and half deeming it a radical break with tradition.

Students from the John Adams Society, an organi-zation at Harvard University, gathered at the Kirk Center for a long weekend in August. The Society

is named for the statesman, scholar, and Harvard man John Adams, whom Russell Kirk famously character-ized as “the founder of true conservatism in America” in his seminal work The Conservative Mind. During this retreat on the life and thought of John Adams, the Soci-ety sought to test Kirk’s thesis on Adams by examining Adams’ primary works. Students scrutinized Adams’ writings on monarchy, aristocracy, constitutionalism, and

John Adams Society of Harvard University Holds Retreat at Kirk Center

Number 31 Fall 2017

Right: Tyler Dobbs, a 2016 Harvard graduate, organized the conference while a Kirk Center Fellow this past summer.

Below: John Adams Society members discussed the Founding Father’s life and thought in the Kirk library.

2 3The Russell Kirk Center Newsletter

KIRK CENTER FELLOWS SPOTLIGHT

Hannah DeRocher re-searched and wrote a

paper on Russell Kirk’s fiction during her summer 2017 Fel-lowship. A teacher at a classi-cal high school in Minnesota, she is currently teaching The Roots of American Order to her senior Humanities class, and notes that Dr. Kirk’s “ques-tions and texts are a constant education for me both in history and pedagogy.”

In addition to her professional project, Hannah found her time at the Kirk Center personally revitalizing, explaining that “cooking feasts with other Fellows, spending time every night having discussions about conservatism and culture under the cedar trees, made for an exquisite experience.”

A recent graduate of the University of Edin-

burgh, Scotland, Matthew Smith spent March through August of 2017 in residence at the Center. He studied the work of John Henry Cardinal Newman and the literature contesting his lega-cy. Matthew appreciated the “well-curated collection of books and the scholarly envi-ronment” in the Kirk library adding that “an essential part of life as a Fellow is interac-tion with other Fellows and being able to discuss each other’s work. This nurtured academic progress.”

During his Fellowship, Matthew secured a position as a tutor at the Worth School in England, where he now resides.

T his October, students from the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center travelled to the

Kirk Center for a conference on “Literary States-manship—The Moral Imagination in Russell Kirk, Ray Bradbury, T. S. Eliot, and The Inklings.”

Jonathon Eller, Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, spoke on “That High Truth: Kirk, Bradbury, and the British Fabulists” and “By the Light of Another World: The Interplanetary Fantasies of Ray Bradbury and C . S. Lewis.” This was Dr. Eller’s first visit to the Kirk Center, which he described as a “peer institution” to his own. The conference provided the opportunity to discover the connections between Kirk and Bradbury both as friends and as short story writers of high imagination.

Additional lectures included “Beyond Politics: Dawson, Eliot, and Kirk,” by T. S. Eliot scholar Ben Lockerd, and “Between Heaven and Hell and the Firth of Forth: The Scottish Ghost Stories of Russell Kirk,” by author James Person. The three lecturers then joined the students for lively roundtable discussions in the Kirk library.

Literary Statesmanship Conference Features Ray Bradbury Scholar

The Society is grateful to the Abigail Adams Institute of Boston and ISI for contributing grants toward the expenses.

Students departed more knowledge-able about the life and thought of both Adams and Kirk, prepared for debate about conservative principles, and with a head start on their activities for the academic year.

John Adams Society continued from page 1

Dr. Gary Gregg, director of The McConnell Center, led the students in a reading of Kirk’s masterful short story “There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Winding,” one evening in the Kirk drawing-room. During their four-day seminar, students also enjoyed perusing the Mecosta Book Gallery, dinner at a local ranch, and conversing over a roaring bonfire. The brilliant fall setting made the students’ visit to the Kirk Center the ideal time and place for discussing the haunting, thought-provoking fiction of Kirk and Bradbury.

Hannah DeRocher, a high school teacher, researched and wrote a paper on Kirk’s fiction as a Fellow (summer ’17).

Matthew Smith (second from right) found that “an extremely enjoyable part of my time in Mecosta was the chance to participate in the numerous conferences.” He is pic-tured here joining a seminar attended by the summer interns of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Bradbury Center Director Jonathan Eller led a roundtable discussion on the short stories of Bradbury and Kirk.

Harvard students debated about the Ameri-can Revolution in the Kirk house.