Katherine Burton (1) (1890–1969)

I really enjoyed this book about Pope St. Pius X. It summed up his life perfectly. This man gave everything for the cause of Christ, literally. If he received a gift or money, he found a way to pass it on. He didn't want to accede to the Papacy, and actively told the College of Cardinals he had no wish to ascend the throne of St. Peter. However, they were impressed by his humility and elected him anyway. His time in Rome saw change in relations with France as well as a shift in the balance of power within the College of Cardinals. With his appointment of cardinals, it marked a departure from tradition, Italian cardinals no longer held a majority.

I said I enjoyed the book. However, this is definitely a hagiography. No question. Published in 1950, I have a feeling this was meant to bolster his reputation in the minds of the public. In 1951, Pius X was beatified and a few years later canonized. What this book lacks is a full picture of the late pontiff. We get none of the faults, only the singing of his praises.

Still, it was an excellent book.… (mehr)

Brook Farm was like other farms, with cows and horses and pigs, but in the evenings the farmers would get together in the main house and discuss philosophy, theology, ethics, religion, social justice, etc. Everything but farming. And why not? With Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Greeley, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, Orestes Brownson, William Ellery Channing, and sundry Transcendentalists hashing it out, the discussions got lively! The purpose of Brook Farm, according to cynic Thomas Carlyle, was "to reform the world by cultivating onions."

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a trustee, and a resident until he decided he could put his talents to better use than by "playing chambermaid to a group of cows." He would sit and watch people for hours, as if gathering material for a novel. It was called "The Blithedale Romance."

Emerson declined to join, but visited often and persuaded Henry David Thoreau to check it out. "They work too much," Thoreau decided. "Too much doing; not enough being." Bronson Alcott also declined to join; he believed in personal, not social, reform, and started his own community three miles away.

"It was a short and imperfect experiment," said George Bradford, but it had wide-ranging effects on American literature and thought. The noble attempts of the Brook Farmers and their eminent visitors to solve life's riddles make for a fascinating read.… (mehr)