I don’t know much about the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, except that I read somewhere that he gave his wife Nadezhda a pacifier and persuaded her to wear it around her neck on a string of pearls so that he could stick the pacifier in her mouth whenever she interrupted him, which apparently she did rather often. That factoid isn’t much in itself, but it was intriguing enough to inspire me to read Professor Alexis Klimoff’s article on Mandelstam in translation in the February issue of First Things (not online; you’ll have to subscribe). If any of you skipped that article because you hadn’t heard of Mandelstam, I urge you to reconsider.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
