Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker the Miracle of Our Continuance

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it was amazing Average rating 5.00 ·

· 3 ratings · 2 reviews

Start your review of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker: The Miracle of Our Continuance

Last year I was able to attend the launch of this stunning book by Fordham University Press and was thrilled to hear now-96-year-old Vivian Cherry, as beautiful and cogent as ever. During the Fifties, Vivian met Dorothy Day and the two women hit it off. Dorothy allowed Vivian illuminating access to Catholic Worker life and Vivian was able to photograph not only Dorothy but also the people she lived and worked with on Chrystie Street and at two CW farms.
The black and white photos, carefully repr Last year I was able to attend the launch of this stunning book by Fordham University Press and was thrilled to hear now-96-year-old Vivian Cherry, as beautiful and cogent as ever. During the Fifties, Vivian met Dorothy Day and the two women hit it off. Dorothy allowed Vivian illuminating access to Catholic Worker life and Vivian was able to photograph not only Dorothy but also the people she lived and worked with on Chrystie Street and at two CW farms.
The black and white photos, carefully reproduced by Fordham under Vivian's guidance, give us a unique look at CW life during the years when the country had hunkered down to a conservative McCarthyism. During this time, far from the medial light that shone on it in later decades, the Worker deepened spiritually and intellectually and Vivian's photos capture that mood eloquently.
Chapters on the New York house of hospitality, the newspaper, the farm, celebrations, protest and prison, and prayer pair stunning photos with selections from Dorothy's writing. We see and read about the men standing in long soup lines, Workers baking bread, a guest sleeping in a chair under a statue of the Virgin Mary, Ammon Hennacy both selling the paper and protesting, Father Clarence Duffy holding a young lamb, Farmer John Fillegar pausing on his tractor in front of a field crucifix, Stanley Vishnewski telling stories, Workers praying, eating, and laughing together—in short all the contradictory and blessed ways life is lived in a Catholic Worker community.
Kate Hennessy, Dorothy Day's granddaughter, who has since written an amazing book of her own about her "Granny," writes an elegant introduction to the book and from it we learn about Vivian's exciting life as activist and photographer. This is a coffee-table size book you'll want to read often and show to everyone. I spent an hour with it on May Day--the anniversary of the Catholic Worker--a fitting way to celebrate an enduring movment, as is this book! Highly recommended.
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Apr 03, 2018 Dan Salerno rated it it was amazing

This is the sort of book that fans of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker will love!

DOROTHY DAY AND THE CATHOLIC WORKER is full of beautiful photos taken by Vivian Cherry. They were taken in 1955-56 and offer an intimate look at the Catholic Worker some twenty years into its history.

There are ample images of Dorothy, and her daughter Tamar Hennessy, as well as a few Catholic Worker icons (like Stanley Vishnewski, Deane Mower, Ammon Hennacy, John Filigar and others).

What's equally priceless are t

This is the sort of book that fans of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker will love!

There are ample images of Dorothy, and her daughter Tamar Hennessy, as well as a few Catholic Worker icons (like Stanley Vishnewski, Deane Mower, Ammon Hennacy, John Filigar and others).

What's equally priceless are the introduction by Kate Hennessy (Tamar's youngest child) and a great sampling of Dorothy's On Pilgrimage columns from the Worker newsletter over the years.

Kate tells the story of how Vivian and Dorothy met, which in itself is fascinating: "On an early spring day in 1955 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, two women met who on the surface could not have been more different. One was an atheist born of Jewish immigrants, a young woman of thirty-five with no children, and a documentary photographer. The other was a Catholic of old American Protestant stock and Mayflower descent, a grandmother of six with three more to come, and a writer, public figure, activist, and leader of a movement."

For those of us used to a very few images of Dorothy, confined to looking somber while sitting at her desk, typing up her next column, this book offers amazing variety - Dorothy cooking, praying, visiting her grandchildren, protesting...

DOROTHY DAY and the CATHOLIC WORKER: THE MIRACLE OF OUR CONTINUANCE allows us a much better glimpse of the person behind the "saint."

Well done!!!

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