Judging from your comments, you must not be very familiar with Russell Kirk. Far from pining for a world that never was, he calls for dealing with things as they are.
I recommend that you read The Conservative Mind (Chicago: Regnery, 1953) and then judge for yourself whether or not he was a literary dreamer. And, by the way, I would also recommend that you read William Strunk's The Elements of Style (Ithaca, NY, 1918).
Read them both. Prefer Orwell’s Politics and The English Language.