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.

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Anthony Esolen is a professor at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in Warner, New Hampshire, and the author of many 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). He and his wife Debra publish a web magazine, Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com), on poetry, hymnody, language, classic films, and music. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.

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