The essays in this collection were written as reviews, mainly for The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker, on books by or about Alexander Pope, Vincent van Gogh, Thomas Mann, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, and A. E. Housman, or as introductions to editions of the classical Greek writers, the Protestant mystics, Shakespeare, Goethe, Kierkegaard, Tennyson, Grimm and Andersen, Poe, G. K. Chesterton, Paul Valéry, and others. Throughout, these prose pieces reveal the same wit and intelligence--as well as the vision--that sparked the brilliance of Auden's poetry.

Reading both philosophical and theological texts, this book presents an argument against nostalgia: against the myth of a Golden Age, against the posture that sees "modernity" as a problem to be solved.

AFTER September 11, 2001, emotions couldn't be clearly defined. There were no WORDS strong enough to justify, avenge, explain, or express the sheer magnitude of this horrifyingly unique moment in history. In this remarkable anthology, compiled by Salon.com's award-winning editorial team, Rick Moody, Janet Fitch, Caroline Knapp, and Jeffrey Eugenides join many contemporary literary talents and reporters in giving a voice to the day that left a stunning roar of silence across America. Dread, fear, heroism, and dignity color these pages from eyewitness accounts of ordinary citizens turned rescue workers, to an escape from the World Trade Center, a report on everyday New Yorkers finding comfort in "terror sex," and stories of miracles in the madness -- like that of a blind man led by his seeing-eye dog down eighty-seven flights of stairs to safety. Afterwords also probes the aftermath of the attacks on the nation and the world's cultural, political, and social fabric through writing ranging from an in-depth interview with controversial social critic Noam Chomsky, to a female Pakistani-American journalist's meeting with a Taliban leader and his wives, and essays on how sheer horror gave way to heartening solidarity, macabre spectacle, and kitschy sentimentality. Immediate, raw, emotional, and empowering, this outstanding collection speaks brilliantly to the simple need to remember and comprehend what happened against that perfect blue sky on September 11, 2001. A portion of the royalties will be donated to the Twin Towers Fund and the Red Cross's Fund for Afghan Children.

Mehl offers this heart-to-heart talk that every father desires to have with a son or daughter who is about to the nest. Pastor Mehl offers godly, biblical counsel on issues of faith and integrity.

Poetry. AFTER WORDS, like First Words (Red Dragonfly Press, 2010), is both memoir and elegy, but the losses are more apparent in this volume, as the author knowingly celebrates lives that have ended and things that have nearly disappeared. The deaths of a sister, of beloved uncles, aunts, and grandparents happen in a world where the old homesteads are divided to build highways and new houses—and yet telling what it was like to live on one of those farms, to be caught in those ancient chores and rhythms, makes them lasting and beautiful.

The Afterwordis the afterword to a best-selling novel that doesn’t exist. It is a stunning, deliriously original work of fiction about the nature of faith in the modern world.