Editor’s Note: This excerpt is adapted from 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read), by Christopher J. Scalia.
More years ago than I care to count, when I was studying English literature in graduate school, I found a used copy of the American philosopher Russell Kirk’s The Portable Conservative Reader at the university bookstore. I was familiar with Kirk but had never seen this collection, so even though I had a million other books to read for my classes and not much disposable income, I couldn’t resist buying it. While I waited in line, a classmate approached me to say hello, saw the title, and asked, “A conservative reader? What’s in that?” You didn’t have to be a grad student to understand the subtext: he was skeptical that there was enough conservative thought to fill a 700-page anthology.
