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Tom Fleming Retires
Front Porch Republic ^ | May 21, 2015 | Katherine Dalton

Posted on 05/21/2015 10:57:49 AM PDT by OK Sun

Rockford, Illinois. After thirty-one years at Chronicles Magazine—thirty of them as editor—classicist, poet and polemicist Tom Fleming has retired.

During his tenure at this small but influential magazine of the paleoconservative right, which was founded by Polish emigre Leopold Tyrmand but turned into a real magazine by Tom, he published political and social commentators that varied from the Agrarian-minded Mel Bradford to the analyst of power that was Sam Francis, to the more humorous libertarian Bill Kauffman. He also published many men of letters: Wendell Berry, John Lukacs, George Garrett, Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Lytle, Walker Percy, and Russell Kirk, to name a few.

In recent years the magazine’s readers have enjoyed regular contributions from Clyde Wilson, James O. Tate, Philip Jenkins, Roger McGrath, George McCartney, Frank Brownlow, Claude Polin and several others—a solid group who made the magazine interesting. Former Chronicles senior editor for books Chilton Williamson, whom Tom hired away from National Review in 1989, succeeds him.

Tom’s legacy will be, first, a publication that was willing to put its editorial hand on “third rail” political topics (such as massive immigration) when other magazines simply ducked. Anyone really interested in free political speech, be you on the right or left, should appreciate his courage. Secondly, he created a political magazine that was interested in the wider culture and in art, in way many political journals and sites are not, or not seriously. To give one example: the poetry published under Tom’s tenure (edited in recent years by poetry editor Catharine Savage Brosman) has been uniformly good—making the magazine the only one in America guilty of that.

(Excerpt) Read more at frontporchrepublic.com ...


TOPICS: Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: announcements; chroniclesmagazine; conservatism
Fleming's site: The Fleming Foundation
1 posted on 05/21/2015 10:57:49 AM PDT by OK Sun
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To: OK Sun
The magazine: Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.
2 posted on 05/21/2015 11:02:27 AM PDT by OK Sun (Freedom is not just another word.)
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To: OK Sun
Ah, a recent quote from Mr. Fleming:

George W. Bush was a screw-up in everything he did before having the presidency handed to him by a corrupt political conspiracy, and it came as no surprise that he screwed up the country in the eight years he spent pretending to govern.

My, what a refreshingly dissident insight!

What pure and limpid prose! It fairly trips off the tongue!

We are losing a Mencken, an Eliot, a Bierce!

If only the mainstream media that Fleming spent his entire career allegedly battling against had allowed similar sentiments to be expressed.

But no - nothing but praise and flattery for President Bush flowed from the pens of Paul Krugman, Richard Cohen, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, and the entire coastal establishment.

The man is truly a visionary.

My he never permit the postern to clatter against his posterior as he and his brilliant analysis make their grand exeunt.

3 posted on 05/21/2015 11:12:53 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: OK Sun

Anyone know who is taking over?


4 posted on 05/21/2015 11:18:45 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Never mind. I found it.


5 posted on 05/21/2015 11:19:20 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: OK Sun

I’ve always enjoyed reading Fleming and am glad to see he’ll remain active.


6 posted on 05/21/2015 11:29:43 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
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To: OK Sun

“Tom’s legacy will be, first, a publication that was willing to put its editorial hand on “third rail” political topics (such as massive immigration) when other magazines simply ducked.”

BTTT


7 posted on 05/21/2015 11:50:40 AM PDT by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Who? I am a subscriber. Had not heard this.


8 posted on 05/21/2015 11:55:36 AM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian fascism is on the move.)
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To: Chickensoup

The article says Chilton Williamson. I was hoping for Scott Richert, but he may not want it.


9 posted on 05/21/2015 12:06:28 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: Dr. Sivana

You have a point. IIRC Williamson is older, so perhaps Richert will be next in line.


10 posted on 05/21/2015 12:12:14 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian fascism is on the move.)
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To: wideawake
Maybe so. But I enjoyed this little essay by him: "Tom Fleming’s Complainte"
11 posted on 05/21/2015 1:30:25 PM PDT by OK Sun (Freedom is not just another word.)
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