Richard John Neuhaus
A Life in the Public Square
A brilliant biography of one of the intellectual mavericks of 20th Century Catholicism.
Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) was one of the most influential figures in American public life from the Civil Rights era to the War on Terror. His writing, activism, and connections to people of power in religion, politics, and culture secured a place for himself and his ideas at the center of recent American history. William F. Buckley, Jr. and John Kenneth Galbraith are comparable -- willing controversialists and prodigious writers adept at cultivating or castigating the powerful, while advancing lively arguments for the virtues and vices of the ongoing American experiment. But unlike Buckley and Galbraith, who have always been identified with singular political positions on the right…
Randy Boyagoda's first novel, Governor of the Northern Province, was critically acclaimed and long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Beggar's Feast was longlisted for the 2013 IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize.
He regularly reviews for The New York Times, Harper's and The Globe and Mail and is writing a biography of Richard John Neuhaus, which will be published in 2014. He is Chairman of the English Department at Ryerson University.