A Message from the President

Welcome to the website of the Russell Kirk Center.

Russell and Annette Kirk

We hope that visitors to this site will be inspired to discover more about the life and thought of Russell Kirk and about the work of the Center that carries forward his legacy today. Russell believed deeply that civilization can only thrive when there is, in the words of Edmund Burke, a partnership of “those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are yet to be born.”

Russell saw his mission as conveying to America’s rising generations an understanding of the process by which a healthy culture is transmitted from age to age. Today, this mission is continued in the work of the Russell Kirk Center, which promotes, through its publications, seminars, and fellowships, an appreciation of the “permanent things” that maintain and nurture our civil social order.

You will find on this website information about Russell’s life and writings and about the various projects that we administer here at the Center. There are links that will enable you to find and purchase books by Russell Kirk, subscribe to the Center’s publications, and learn more about our academic programs.

If you would like to support us in our work of intellectual and cultural renewal, please contact us for information on how to make a donation to the Center.

Sincerely,

Annette Y. Kirk

Mere unthinking negative opposition to the current of events, clutching in despair at what we still retain, will not suffice in this age. A conservatism of instinct must be reinforced by a conservatism of thought and imagination.

Russell Kirk

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News and Events

Fall Newsletter

The latest number of the Russell Kirk Center newsletter (Fall 2011) has just been posted. It features a profile of the new complete Kirk Bibliography, compiled by our archivist, Charles C. Brown. It also includes an interview with Márcia Xavier de Brito, who is translating many works of Kirk into Portuguese. You can download it, and past issues, here.

Jan 2012

Passages: Meijer

We are deeply sorry to learn of the death of Fred Meijer. Meijer was a philanthropist par excellence and beloved by all in Michigan who knew him. Readers interested in his life and legacy may be interested to see Jim Person’s review of his biography published in the University Bookman last year.

Dec 2011

Passages: Hoeflich

Annette Kirk and Jeffrey O. Nelson both contributed tributes to a memorial page for Mr. Charles H. Hoeflich (1914–2011), a long-time friend and financial supporter of the Kirk Center who died recently. The Kirk Center is deeply grateful for his support and commemorates a long and fruitful life.

Dec 2011

Kirk Audio at ISI

We commend to your attention the John M. Olin Online Lecture Library at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which hosts several lectures about Russell Kirk and his influence by scholars including Ted McAlister, Michael P. Federici, W. Wesley McDonald, George H. Nash, Gleaves Whitney, and Allan C. Carlson. It also hosts more than twenty-five audio lectures by Russell Kirk.

Dec 2011