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Dorothy Day has been described as “the most significant, interesting, and influential person in the history of American Catholicism.” Outside The Catholic Worker (which she edited from 1933 to her death), Day wrote for no other publication so often and over such an extended period—covering six decades—as the independent Catholic journal of opinion, Commonweal.
Gathered here for the first time are Day’s complete Commonweal pieces, including articles, reviews, and published letters-to-the-editor. They range from the personal to the polemical; from youthful enthusiasm to the gratitude of an aged warrior; sketches from works in progress; portraits of prisoners and dissidents; and a gifted reporter’s dispatches from the flash points of mid-twentieth-century social and economic conflict. Day’s writing offers readers not only an overview of her fascinating life but a compendium of her prophetic insights, spiritual depth, and unforgettable prose.
Chapters are “The Brother and the Rooster,” “Guadalupe,” “Letter From Mexico City,” “Spring Festival in Mexico,” “Bed,” “Now We Are Home Again,” “Notes From Florida,” “East Twelfth Street,” “Review: Saint Elizabeth by Elizabeth von Schmidt-Pauli,” “Real Revolutionists,” “Review: The Catholic Anthology by Thomas Walsh,” “For the Truly Poor,” “Saint John of the Cross,” “Houses of Hospitality,” “The House on Mott Street,” “Tale of Two Capitals,” “Letter: ‘In the Name of the Staff,’” “King, Ramsey and Connor,” “It Was a Good Dinner,” “About Mary,” “Tobacco Road,” “Review: In the Steps of Moses by Louis Golding,” “Review: Our Lady of the Birds by Louis J.A. Mercier,” “Peter and Women,” “Letter: ‘Things Worth Fighting For?’” “The Scandal of the Works of Mercy,” “Traveling by Bus,” “Letter: ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears,’” “The Story of Steve Hergenhan,” “Priest of the Immediate,” “We Plead Guilty,” “Letter: ‘From Dorothy Day,’” “Pilgrimage to Mexico,” “In Memory of Ed Willock,” “Southern Pilgrimage,” “A.J.,” “On Hope,” and “A Reminiscence at 75.”
Patrick Jordan, managing editor of Commonweal, is a former managing editor of The Catholic Worker. He resides in Staten Island, New York.
