Below is a partial list of the books of Russell Kirk (memoirs, nonfiction, and fiction), as well as various books about him.

Items marked with a bullet are still in print or readily available; for the others, we suggest you try a used book service such as abebooks.com or the search service isbn.nu. Publishers’ contact information is also below. You might also try searching for titles at the Mecosta Book Gallery, just down the street from the Kirk Center.

Watch our site for information on new editions.

  • In addition to the books below, Dr. Kirk edited thirty volumes of The Library of Conservative Thought, many of which are still in print from Transaction Publishers.
  • Dr. Kirk delivered sixty lectures at The Heritage Foundation, several of which are available on-line.
  • Audio recordings of several lectures that Dr. Kirk gave at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute are available here.
  • Dr. Kirk’s short stories are frequently included in anthologies of fantasy and horror.
  • Dr. Kirk’s story “Sorworth Place” was adapted for television in Episode 23 of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (1972) (currently streaming on Hulu; a link and discussion are here).

Memoirs

The Sword of Imagination: Memoirs of a Half-Century of Literary Conflict 1995 Eerdmans, ISBN 0-8028-3765-4 (cloth), 0-8028-3954-1 (paper)

Nonfiction and Collected Essays

The Essential Russell Kirk 2007 Edited and with introduction by George A. Panichas. ISI Books, ISBN 1933859016
Rights and Duties: Reflections on Our Conservative Constitution 1997 Introduction by Russell Hittinger. Revised and expanded version of The Conservative Constitution (Regnery, 1990). Spence Publishing, ISBN 0-9653208-2-0; Amazon listing with sample pages
Redeeming the Time 1996 ISI Books, ISBN 1-882926-14-5 (cloth) and 1-882926-21-8 (paper); Preface [PDF]
The Politics of Prudence 1993, 2004 ISI Books, introduction by Mark C. Henrie, ISBN 1-882926-01-3 (cloth) and 1-882926-00-5 (paper); Chapter One [PDF]
America’s British Culture 1993, 2005 Transaction Publishers, ISBN 1-56000-066-X (hardback); ISBN 978-1-4128-0457-8 (paper); Amazon Listing
  Economics: Work and Prosperity  1988 ISBN 1-890624-12-8
The Wise Men Know What Wicked Things Are Written on the Sky (eleven lectures) 1987 Regnery, ISBN 0-89526-574-5. Also available from Blackstone Audiobooks.
The Portable Conservative Reader 1982 Viking/Penguin, ISBN 0-14015-095-1; Amazon Listing with Sample Pages
The Roots of American Order 1974, 1992, 2004 ISI Books, foreword by Forrest McDonald (PDF), ISBN 1-932236-08-2 (cloth), 1-882926-99-4 (paper); Amazon listing; (earlier editions from Regnery Gateway, ISBN 0-89526-755-1)
Eliot and His Age: T. S. Eliot’s Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century 1971, 1988, 2008 ISI Books, with a new introduction by Benjamin G. Lockerd Jr., ISBN1933859539 (Amazon listing); Random House, ISBN 0-394-47236-5; Sherwood Sugden & Co., ISBN 0-89385-247-3
  Enemies of the Permanent Things: Observations of Abnormity in Literature and Politics 1969, 1984 Sherwood Sugden & Co., ISBN 0-89385-021-7
Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered 1967, 1988, 1997 ISI Books, ISBN 1-882926-17-X; Foreword by Roger Scruton. Amazon listing with sample pages. Also available from Blackstone Audiobooks.
The American Cause 1957, 1966, 2002 ISI Books, ISBN 1-882926-93-5; edited with a new introduction by Gleaves Whitney; Amazon.com Listing; (earlier edition: Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-8371-7988-2); Introduction [PDF]; Chapter One [PDF]
Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: Essays of a Social Critic 1956, 1991 Sherwood Sugden & Co., ISBN 0-89385-040-3. Amazon Listing
  Academic Freedom: An Essay in Definition 1955, 1977 Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-8371-9566-7
Prospects for Conservatives 1954, 1956, 1989 Regnery, ISBN 0-89526-761-6; Amazon Listing with Sample Pages
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot 1953, 1995 Regnery, ISBN 0-89526-724-1 (seventh edition, cloth). Also available from Blackstone Audiobooks. Amazon listing with sample pages
John Randolph of Roanoke: A Study in American Politics 1951, 1964, 1978, 1994, 1997 Liberty Fund, fourth edition, ISBN 0-86597-150-1 (paper), 0-86597-149-8 (cloth). Amazon listing

Novels and Collected Stories

Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of GhostlyTales 2004 Eerdmans, foreword by Vigen Guroian, ISBN: 0-8028-3938-X (hardcover), 424 pages.
What Shadows We Pursue: Ghost Stories, Volume Two 2003 Ash-Tree Press, ISBN 1-55310-051-4 (cloth); edited and with an introduction by John Pelan
Off the Sand Road: Ghost Stories, Volume One 2002 Ash-Tree Press, ISBN 1-55310-043-3 (cloth); edited and with an introduction by John Pelan
  Watchers at the Strait Gate (stories) 1984 Arkham House, ISBN 0-87054-098-X
  Lord of the Hollow Dark 1979, 1989 first edition: St. Martin’s Press; second edition: Christendom Press, ISBN 0-931888-35-2 (paper)
  The Princess of All Lands (stories) 1979 Arkham House
  A Creature of the Twilight: His Memorials 1966 Fleet Publishing Corporation
  The Surly Sullen Bell: Ten Stories and Sketches, Uncanny or Uncomfortable 1962 Fleet Publishing Corporation
Old House of Fear 1961, 2007 Eerdmans, ISBN 0802817629. Earlier editions: Fleet Publishing Corporation (cloth); Avon (paper)

Books About Russell Kirk

The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk 2007 By Gerald J. Russello, University of Missouri Press, ISBN 978-0-8262-1720-2
Russell Kirk and the Age of Ideology 2004 By W. Wesley McDonald, University of Missouri Press, ISBN 0826215122
Russell Kirk: A Critical Biography of a Conservative Mind 1999 By James E. Person, Jr., Madison Books, ISBN 1-56833-131-2 (First Things review)
The Unbought Grace of Life: Essays in Honor of Russell Kirk 1994 Edited by James E. Person, Jr. Sherwood Sugden & Co., ISBN 0-89385-043-8
  Russell Kirk: A Bibliography 1981 Compiled by Charles Brown, with an essay by Henry Regnery. Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University

Other Academic Resources about Russell Kirk

  • There is an extensive and useful entry on Dr. Kirk in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, vol. 119 (Gale Research).
  • He is also mentioned in Gale’s Authors in the News, volume 1; Contemporary Authors, volumes 1-4R
    Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, volume 9; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, volumes 1, 20, and 60; Contemporary Authors—Obituary, volume 145; and Major 20th-Century Writers, editions 1 and 2.
  • Dr. Kirk has an entry in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers (St. James Press).

Publisher Information

  Eerdmans Publishing Company 800-253-7521
  ISI and ISI Books 800-526-7022
  Liberty Fund Press 800-955-8335
  Madison Books (imprint of Cooper Square Press) 800-462-6420
  Viking (imprint of Penguin Putnam Publishing Group) 800-788-6262
  Regnery Publishing, Inc. 202-216-0600
  Sherwood Sugden & Company (division of Open Court Publishing Company) 800-815-2280
  Spence Publishing 888-773-6782
  Transaction Publishers 888-999-6778