July 26, 2007
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One of My Heroes
I fell in like with George Grant in 1995.
My husband knows. He likes him too.
1995 is the year we began to take World magazine. Dr. Grant wrote book reviews in a column called Grant’s Tomes. His choice of words, his turns of phrase, his cadences – in short, his style – charmed and captivated me. His themes of booklove, gardens, music, food, family and friends bounced around my soul making happy echoes and haunting overtones. He loved Scotland. [really, I could end this essay right there.]
Dr. Grant took me by the hand, so to speak, into a massive reading room. As we moseyed by bookcases he began loading my arms with recommended books and filling my head with pithy quotes. He taught me the lineup of his favorite big hitters: Chesterton, Chalmers, Buchan, Belloc, Kuyper, MacDonald, Lytle, Van Til, Roosevelt. He reviewed classics, ubiquitous and obscure. Newly published books were spotlighted, but only the good ones. He defended his practice of writing positive reviews. “I make no pretense of being a journalist or a professional critic of belles lettres,” he wrote. “I am a reader who happens to enjoy sharing my favorite discoveries with others.” I had imbibed the waters of popular Christian pulp fiction and was thirsty for a heartier ale. Grant, more than any other living soul (with my beloved Latin teacher coming in a close second), influenced the choices, direction and purpose of my omnivorous reading.
I ripped those columns from their binding, snipped neatly around the borders, slipped them into page protectors and gripped them together in a binder labeled Book Reviews.
This overstuffed binder full of clippings (not just Dr. Grant’s),
crammed with book lists, loaded with scrawled notes on little bits of paper, interspersed with directions to used bookstores,
tightened by essays on the bookish life, and containing a handwritten list written for me in answer to the question, ‘where should I start reading?’ by the late Dr. Mary Jane Loso
(the local university’s English Chair extraordinaire) is my personal Fort Knox. If I were my own heir, this is the item I’d covet, the one thing I would abandon all pleasant “no, you go first” murmurs for. Each time I pick it up I comprehend more. Grant reviewed Wendell Berry in 1996, but I didn’t really meet Wendell Berry until 2006.
We went to several conferences where George Grant was a speaker. My husband and I joined the asymmetrical semi-circle of people waiting for a word with the tall, bow-tied, bespectacled man close to our own age. When it was my turn, I shook his hand and simply said, “Thank you. You’ve changed my life.”
Some college friends of ours have recently moved from California to Franklin, Tennessee. Our theological paths seemed parallel thirty years ago, but time has widened the differences. We gently recommended Parish Presbyterian where George Grant is pastoring, but haven’t heard back. Ain’t no question about it: if we lived in Franklin, that would be our church.
I picked up Grant’s book Going Somewhere this week. It is so jam-packed full of goodness, that my review will take several posts, starting tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Comments (9)
Delightful account of your *friendship*.
Hadnt heard of Going Somewhere, but it sounds like an interesting approach to Dante’s Inferno. Now I wonder from whom I can borrow a copy.
Dana in GA
Oh, Dana! There’s a chapter on Atlanta! And one chapter on Wheaton, where Donna grew up. I’ll send you mine when I’m finished.
It’s part journal, part travelogue, with reviews of “real” restaurants and mentions of real bookstores. There is a brief history of the places.
And quotes all the way through.
Going Somewhere sounds interesting, but even more I would like to get my hot little hands on your Book Reviews notebook! What a great idea – I may steal it.
Carrie K.
Carol’s organization does put me to shame ….
Amen, sister!
Well, I meant ‘amen’ to your essay on Dr. Grant, then realized it fit well after Dana’s comment too, though, I’m beyond shame and have become embarassingly shameless in asking you for advice, opinions and !help! on too many occasions. You are dependable, and that is a huge compliment. :0)
Aw shucks!
Although if I own the book and have a good review, I will stick it in the book itself…..
I’ve got GS on my to-read-this-year shelf and my list. We’ll see if I actually have time to do it!
Love you pics to go along with the post.
“His themes of booklove, gardens, music, food, family and friends….” You do know about his books of quotes, etc., with these topics as titles, don’t you? If forget all the exact titles, but to one on books is called Shelf Life. So good to pick up for a few minutes.
Janie
Oh yes – I think I have them all. I didn’t have the Christmas one last season, but it’s ready on my shelf this year.