Shooting the Rapids by Anthony Esolen

View

Shooting the Rapids

Anthony Esolen on Manhood in the Making

The summer before my eighth grade, a couple of young men from town showed up at our door, asking my parents if they could talk to us about my enrolling in something they called the “Higher Achievement Program” at the local Jesuit high school. They had heard, they said, that I was very bright, and they thought I’d be a great addition to the program. I actually thought that somehow they were recruiting my assistance, so for this once in my boyhood vanity overcame shyness and I agreed.

Day Camp

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.

A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door

  • Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
  • Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Subscribe (Print + Online)

Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.

Subscribe (Online Only)

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.


bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more from the online archives

28.3—May/June 2015

Of Bicycles, Sex, & Natural Law

Describing Human Ends & Our Limitations Is Neither Futile Nor Unloving by R. V. Young

32.4—July/August 2019

Pastor Prime

on a Steady Presence in an Unsteady World by Preston Jones

22.6—July/August 2009

Unhappy Fault

on the Integration of Anger into the Virtuous Life by Leon J. Podles

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00