"Richard Mitchell is a superb shatterer of icons. In The Gift of Fire, passion, commitment, exquisite reasoning, and Mitchell's unique sense of humor are trained on the vital question: How do we use and, more commonly, misuse our minds? An important work." --Thomas H. Middleton

"There exists in every age, in every society, a small, still choir of reason emanating from a few scattered thinkers ignored by the mainstream. Their collective voices, when duly discovered a century or so too late, reveal what was wrong with that society and age, and how it could have been corrected if only people had listened and acted accordingly. Richard Mitchell's is such a voice. It could help make a better life for you or, if it is too late for that, for your children. Ignore it at your and their peril." --John Simon

The Underground Grammarian is back with the most important book of his career. Richard Mitchell, author of the classics Less Than Words Can Say, The Graves of Academe, and The Leaning Tower of Babel, delivers in The Gift of Fire a series of fiercely witty, brilliantly considered "sermons" on an issue as old as Socrates but still controversial today: What is the role of morality in education, and therefore in our daily responsibilities? And how do we decide what morality should be taught, and why?

Those familiar with Mitchell's legendary Underground Grammarian will recognize the sound of Mitchell's voice crying in the wilderness--with considerable humor--as he uses telling examples and wicked, witty parables to illustrate his belief that the American education establishment and society itself have failed to teach us mental discipline, independence of thought, individual responsibility, or even the right books. From The Gift of Fire's first chapter, "Who Is Socrates, Now That We Need Him?" to the book's stunning, emotionally moving conclusion, Mitchell decries "feel good," "I'm OK, You're OK" American public education--based on teaching to the lowest common denominator--and argues for a return to studies based on the work of thinkers like Socrates, Aquinas, and Ben Franklin. In this way, all of us learn to think for ourselves, not just the privileged.

Here, too, are Mitchell's beautifully written, exquisitely argued explorations of not what but how to think about the knotty moral issues that face us every day: ambition, violence, nuclear weapons, political conflict, patience, duty, love, and even child-rearing. In the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mitchell considers the world around him in a manner that is thought-provoking, fascinating, and entertaining.

Thousands of enlightened readers know Richard Mitchell as one of our most brilliant, passionate, funny, and quintessentially American thinkers. Join them in reading The Gift of Fire. It will change your life--or at least how you think about it.

Richard Mitchell is editor and publisher of The Underground Grammarian and professor of classics at Glassboro State College.