How to account for the lasting influence of a fifty year-old work of literary criticism? Thomas P. Roche, Jr.'s book The Kindly Flame encourages readers to make their own meaning out of Spenser's Faerie Queene.
The Spenser Review has run an issue remembering Paul Alpers, who sadly passed away last May, and I am one of the six contributors. I have a great fear (I hope I’m wrong) that Alpers is not so well known to those new to the profession of criticism. He was a giant, and is very much missed.