Perfect Sowing: Reflections of a Bookman

Drawn largely from his own journal, Modern Age, these essays by conservative Chicago publisher Regnery, who died in 1996, concentrate mainly on favorite authors from the political right, like Russell Kirk, Wyndham Lewis, Roy Campbell, Whittaker Chambers and Freda Utley. But he devotes not only an essay but many scattershot references in other pieces as well to FDR, whom Regnery considered the scourge of the century--not only the author of the 1930s economic morass and the man who opened Washington to the Communist underground, but also a foolish intervener into wars with Germany and Japan, and the inventor of the unconditional surrender doctrine that forestalled a negotiated peace. In one essay, Regnery celebrates the Chicago visionary architect of the skyscraper, Louis Sullivan, while in another he deplores the waste of genius in the career of University of Chicago president Robert Hutchins. In the end, Regnery's main enemy is nothing less than liberalism itself, and this book will therefore find few nonpartisan readers. The liberal, Regnery writes, ""does not accept man as God made him, the human condition as it is, nor society as it has come down to us."" So consistent was Regnery in his views that this collection could serve as a handbook for conservative speechwriters. (Oct.)