About – House of Humane Letters

Angelina Stanford has an Honors Baccalaureate Degree and a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Louisiana, graduating Phi Kappa Phi. For over twenty-five years, she has shared her passion and enthusiasm for literature with students in a variety of settings—everywhere from university classrooms to homeschool co-ops to homeschooling her own three children. In 2012, she entered the world of online teaching, creating a unique online community and mentor relationship with her students. And in 2020 she founded with her husband, Thomas Banks, the House of Humane Letters, providing classes, conferences and other resources for a more humane education. Angelina maintains a high commitment to teaching teachers and students the skill and art of reading well--and in recapturing the tradition of literary scholarship needed to fully engage with the Great Books.

Known for her ability to make academic scholarship both accessible and entertaining, Angelina has presented papers at the College English Association Conference, the Conference on Christianity and Literature and is a respected speaker at numerous conferences around the world. She has also written for numerous publications--including The Old Schoolhouse magazine and a column for Home Educating Family magazine. She is currently working on a book about How to Read Fairy Tales.

A popular guest on a variety of podcasts, Angelina launched her own podcast, The Literary Life Podcast, with her husband Thomas Banks, and her long-time friend Cindy Rollins in 2019. Flagged by Itunes as a New and Noteworthy Podcast, each episode explores some aspect of cultivating a literary life--from slow, thoughtful readings of novels and short stories to literary topics like the importance of the detective novel or getting over a reading slump. She is a great believer that Stories Will Save the World!

Thomas Banks' Bio

Thomas Banks has taught great books with an emphasis on Greek and Roman literature, Latin grammar and ancient history for more than ten years both as a private tutor and as a junior high and high school teacher in his native Idaho and Montana. He holds dual bachelor's degrees in English Literature and Classical Studies from the University of Idaho, from which he graduated in 2008. In the summer of 2019, he moved to North Carolina to marry the illustrious Ms. Angelina Stanford, who said yes for some reason.

Poetry is a particular love of his, and he has published original verse and translations in The Imaginative Conservative, First Things, the St. Austin Review and various other periodicals. His personal list of favorite writers never really stops growing, but will always include Homer, Euripides, Virgil, Ovid, St. Augustine, Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, Byron, Keats, Walter Scott and Thomas Hardy. Of these and so many others one cannot have enough.

About the House of Humane Letters

Over the last decade, a beautiful renaissance has begun to blossom. Students of all ages are discovering how transformative our stories and histories and words are. People are not only eager to provide these often neglected subjects to their children, but they are desperate to redeem their own education as well. What an exciting time for a humanities teacher!

It has been a tremendous privilege to be a part of this re-awakening. My greatest joy in the world is sharing the gift of stories with eager students. And, one day I met a man who shared this passion with me. A teacher who has also devoted his life to all of the things that I hold dear. In June 2019 we joined both our personal lives and our professional lives.

After months of planning, we are thrilled to announce our new endeavor, the House of Humane Letters. Our vision builds on the work begun by AngelinaStanford.com and includes an expanded online academy with classes in literature, poetry, history, and Latin (and more in the future); more short-term classes and webinars; a publishing house to create even more resources; online conferences; literary retreats; teacher training; and more.

Why the House of Humane Letters?

Mr. Banks and I wanted to choose a name for our new endeavor that reflected our complete vision and summed up what we believe about education. We immediately knew we wanted “Humane Letters” for several reasons. First, humane letters is a Renaissance term for the humanities, and it conveys our love of tradition and approach to teaching these subjects that is deeply rooted in the old ways. Second, the humane letters was a term associated with an educational reform movement in the Renaissance (literae humaniores). And third, we love the use of the word “humane” for its connotation. This is an education for the whole person, a fully human way of learning.

In the same way, we landed on the term “House.” Driving back from our honeymoon, we tossed around potential names and nothing felt right--every word we could think of felt too modern, too progressive, too academic, too cold. And then… House, which is another old term for educational institutions. Here again we had found a word that both conveyed tradition and age--and life. For education is not only for the classroom, but for the home. It’s for study and for life. It’s for people who desire a lifetime of learning in order to become more fully human.

Welcome to the House of Humane Letters: Resources for a More Humane Education.