Helprin Profile At Harvard Magazine

A new profile of author and conservative opinion writer, Mark Helprin.
If you have only time to read a single book this year, make it Soldier Of The Great War.

[Alessandro and Nicolo have just been spotted by the convoy]
“No matter what they say, don’t answer,” Allesandro told Nicolo under his breath, “and don’t move.”
“Why? What for?” Nicolo protested.
“To enrich their folklore.”
One of the women began to wail. Soon it was a chorus. The truck that had left the line quickly returned, and the farmers drive away, crossing themselves.
“In a thousand years,” Alessandro said, “this incident will be remembered. By then, of course, we will have become angels, devils, or a dragon that breathes fire — but we have given this rock a story that will be passed on.”
“What good is that?”
“It isn’t to our advantage, if that’s what you mean. However, it’s pleasurable to cast a line into the future, no matter how tenuously. You never know, the line may be unbroken all the way to the last judgment…. Nicolo, mischief is important….”

My life’s motto.
“Mischief is important.”
(Other exerpts here.)