This third revision of Jim Forest's biography of one of the most perpetually significant figures of the 20th century, Dorothy Day, neatly encapsulates her witness and legacy. Miss Day, the co-founder (along with Peter Maurin) of the Catholic Worker movement and of The Catholic Worker newspaper, remains one of the giants of 20th Century Catholicism, with enduring relevance for today.
James H. Forest, a former managing editor of The Catholic Worker, was a long-time associate of Day. He writes with a flourish from an insider's perspective. Orbis Books greatly enhanced his biography with a stunning visual archive, along with sidebar copy fitted to the text by Orbis' publisher and editor-in-chief and former Catholic Worker managing editor Robert Ellsberg, also editor of the critical editions of Day's journals and correspondence, both published by Marquette University Press.
Several dozen books and monographs have treated Day's life and impact, but nothing comes close to Forest's exhaustive volume in terms of coverage of key aspects of her life; the trove of photographs (many previously unpublished) that enhance the text; and, the many amusing and alternately moving anecdotes included from such veteran Catholic Workers as Ellsberg (whom the elderly Day sometimes mistakenly referred to as "young Ellsworth"), Deacon Tom and Monica Cornell and Jim Forest himself. Forest dedicates the work to Tom Cornell and Robert Ellsberg, kindred spirits and long-time friends.
An ancient Christian once remarked of the writings of St. Athanasius: "If you cannot get a copy of one of his books, write it on your clothing!" Forest's definitive biography of Day, on the path to official canonization within the Roman Catholic Church and now formally recognized as "Servant of God Dorothy Day," likewise merits singular praise.
I include a representative selection of Forest's treatment of Day from ALL IS GRACE below:
p. 54:
< a sidebar quotation from a letter of Dorothy to a young woman, February 6, 1973:
"I'm praying very hard for you this morning, because I myself have been through much of what you have been through. Twice I tried to take my own life, and the dear Lord pulled me thru that darkness -- I was rescued from that darkness. My sickness was physical, too, since I had had an abortion with bad after-effects, and in a way my sickness of mind was a penance I had to endure. But God has been so good to me -- I have known such joy in nature, and work -- in fulfilling myself, using my God-given love of beauty and desire to express myself. He has given me over and over again, such joy and strength as He will surely give to you if you ask Him."
p. 125:
"(For many people, Dorothy noted, the main impediment was not so much lack of space as an excess of fear, which in turn revealed a lack of love)."
p. 133:
"In later years, a visitor to the Catholic Worker asked a member of the staff, Tom Cornell, if there was any standard for what was purchased. 'Of course,' said Tom. 'Nothing but the best, and the best is none too good for God's poor.' This had been Dorothy's view from the Catholic Worker's first days: 'What a delightful thing it is,' she wrote in the 1930s, 'to be boldly profligate, to ignore the price of coffee and to go on serving good coffee and the finest bread to the long line of destitute who come to us.'"
p. 270:
Sidebar quotation, from a "Freedom of Information" request obtained by Robert Ellsberg:
"Dorothy Day has been described as a very erratic and irresponsible person... She has engaged in activities which strongly suggest that she is consciously or unconsciously being used by Communist groups. From past experience with her it is obvious she maintains a very hostile and belligerent attitudes towards the [Federal] Bureau [of Investigation] and makes every effort to castigate the Bureau whenever she feels so inclined" -- J. Edgar Hoover [founding director of the FBI], in the FBI file on Dorothy Day.
p. 270:
"Even more than the FBI, the government agency most fascinated by the Catholic Worker during the Vietnam War was the Internal Revenue Service, the nation's tax collector--and, from the Catholic Worker Point of view, chief fund-raiser for the war. The IRS found the Catholic Worker a peculiar object. No one, including Dorothy Day, received a salary, yet it couldn't be regarded as a convent or monastery - no one wore special clothes or took any vows. Nor had it ever sought special recognition from the IRS as a `charity' - what was given away, Dorothy stressed, was more a work of justice than charity. In any event, what charity engaged in protest, often had staff members in jail for acts of protest, or advocating nonviolent revolution? (On the other hand, the Catholic Worker has been registered with the New York State Bureau of Charities since its founding and each year submits a report to officials in Albany)."
"In April 1972, during a period of military escalation in Vietnam, an IRS letter addressed to the Catholic Worker demanded payment of $296,359 - `unpaid taxes' plus fines and interest. Dorothy often wondered whether this was the beginning of a process that would effectively suppress the paper and put her back in prison, this time for a much longer stay. Still more likely would be the confiscation of the Catholic Worker house on First Street and the farm at Tivoli plus whatever money happened to be in the community's bank account."
pp. 270--271:
"[Dorothy] was aware that the Catholic Worker movement's longstanding opposition to paying taxes was an incitement for the IRS to take up such an action. `One of the most costly protests against war, in the long run,' Dorothy wrote, `a protest involving enduring personal sacrifice, is to refuse to pay income taxes for war.' Dorothy was aware that if the Catholic Worker redefined itself in such a way that it would be eligible for recognition as a tax-exempt charity, the present [IRS] demand would probably be withdrawn, and also that, with tax exempt status, many more people would be inclined to make contributions, for they could then deduct such gifts from their taxable income. But she could not in conscience apply for any such special recognition."
"Dorothy begged her readers' prayers and understanding... We are told by Jesus to practice the works of mercy, not the works of war. And we do not see why it is necessary to ask the government for permission to practice the works of mercy, which are the opposite of the works of war."
p. 272:
"Dorothy wrote in her June [1972] column, `It is not only that we must follow our conscience in opposing the government in war,' she explained. `We believe that the government has no right to legislate as to who can or who are to perform the Works of Mercy.'"
"'We are not tax evaders,' she explained to readers who thought she was opposed to all taxes. She pointed out that the Catholic Worker quite willingly paid local property taxes, both in New York and in Tivoli, and made no attempt to avoid these on religious grounds. Dorothy said she had much praying to do and was finding consolation in reading Tolstoy's War and Peace."
p. 284:
"Dorothy didn't mellow with old age, but continued to speak firmly about values that mattered in her life. `I wish colleges would stop offering me honorary degrees which I must in conscience refuse,' she said in a 1976 letter to a president to a Catholic college, `but wish to refuse with respect and gratitude. Whoever is responsible for making such an offer to me certainly knows nothing of the philosophy of the Catholic Worker movement.' Why should a school honor a pacifist like herself when, at the same time, it hosts a government-funded military program? In the same letter she pointed out that `love of country is not synonymous with love of governments.' ... (In the last decade or two of her life, Dorothy turned down at least fifteen invitations from Catholic colleges to be awarded an honorary degree. In each case she cited her distress at the subversion of education by the military)."
pp. 288-289:
"With the spring of 1978, Dorothy was strong enough to come downstairs more regularly, for the evening meal and the twice-weekly Mass. But she felt captive of her frail body. Reporting on the arrest of community members Robert Ellsberg and Brian Terrell at a nuclear weapons plant in Colorado, she mourned her inability to take part in such actions herself: `I am confined in another way than in prison, by weakness and age, but truly I can pray with fervor for those on active duty [e.g., on the front lines of the peace movement].'"
pp. 297-298:
"In her diary for March [1980], Dorothy recalled the saying so often repeated in The Catholic Worker: `The less you have of Caesar's, the less you have to render to Caesar.'"
p. 302:
"When asked what had impressed him most about Dorothy Day, Dan Berrigan responded, `She lived as though the truth were actually true.'"
p. 308:
[Citing John Cardinal O'Connor]: "To Dorothy, everyone was a cathedral."
p. 312, sidebar entry:
< A diary entry of Dorothy Day, dated July, 1969
"I knew when I became a Catholic that the church was a human institution and at first I had a betrayal of the working class, of the poor and oppressed for whom I had a romantic love and desire to serve.... The Lord was seeking me out and I could not resist Him.
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