This followed
on the unanimous vote of the U.S. bishops at their 2012 fall assembly to pursuesainthood for Dorothy Day. She is best known for being a co-founder of the
Catholic Worker movement and newspaper. The first American-born saint was St. (Mother) Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Pope Benedict
and the U.S. bishops may see in her life something that bears on the issues of
today. She had an abortion and her conversion stems from her feelings after having been through the abortion. She was also suspicious of government entering into people’s private lives.
Hilda van Stockum and Dorothy Day shared being writers and being converts to Roman Catholicism. As the correspondence indicates, they shared interests in the business of writing, education and books for children.
Regrettably, I have, as my mother's executor, only the letters sent to my mother by Dorothy Day in 1949 and 1951. (I do not have a copy of the letters sent by my mother to Dorothy Day.)
Hilda van Stockum and Dorothy Day shared being writers and being converts to Roman Catholicism. As the correspondence indicates, they shared interests in the business of writing, education and books for children.
Regrettably, I have, as my mother's executor, only the letters sent to my mother by Dorothy Day in 1949 and 1951. (I do not have a copy of the letters sent by my mother to Dorothy Day.)
1.
1949, Feb. 3, DD to HvS
2.
1951 n.d., DD to HvS
3.
1951, Dec. 20, DD to HvS
[Dorothy Day]
[Peter Maurin Farm]
[469 Bloomingdale Rd.]
[Pleasant Plains, Staten Island,
N.Y.]
Feb 3, 1949 [Feast of] St. Blaise
Dear Hilda [in Montreal] –
After your so good and friendly letter I must call you by your Christian
name. It was good to get your generous letter and we would be delighted to get
the books and I know my daughter would too. Her address is Ridge Road,
Westminster, Md. Our farm address - where I am most often is Peter Maurin Farm,
469 Bloomingdale Rd., Pleasant Plains, Staten Island, N.Y.
Do you know our friends - Dr. Karl Stern, 4137 Marlowe Ave., Montreal?
They too have children. You would love them. [We visited with them in Westmount. I remember them well. - JTM]
My daughter is going to have her fifth child in June. Her husband is now
working at the Newman Book Shop until 9 at night which leaves
her much alone, out in the country and still with no conveniences.
When your books come I will read them too. I love children's books and
would love to write one some day. Right now I am engaged on a story of my life
which Harpers asked for after reading On Pilgrimage. [Her autobiography was published and is still in print - JTM] I'm having an
awful struggle getting it done. How do you write with 6 children?
Have you heard of the Grail? Started by two Dutch women in this country?
A marvelous school for girls.
My son-in-law, having no formal education, read all of the Chesterton
& Belloc to get their education. A good idea.
Got
to rush now. Too many people. Write again
Sincerely
in Christ
Dorothy
Day
[Dorothy Day]
[Peter Maurin Farm, 469
Bloomingdale Rd.]
[Pleasant Plains, Staten Island,
N.Y.]
1951
Dear Hilda [in Ireland] –
Thank you for your most interesting letters from Ireland. Just back
myself from a 4 mos. trip to the coast and south, and return to 10 degrees
above zero and rheumatism in my hands.
How do you ever get so much writing done, and such good writing. I'm trying mainly to finish a St. Therese book. I am too attached to people.
My daughter's children have been sick with mumps, & the oldest with
pneumonia. She is 8 this April. Tamar will have her 6th in Aug. - 6 under 9.
Quite a handful. And noisy. All in a 4 room house! Poverty indeed.
However if we can raise the money to put on one big room and porch it
will do, as they have 4 acres around them and the house only cost $6,000.
Housing is still a problem here. One of the worst parts of poverty is the
necessity to be always scheming, planning, figuring, how to get bills paid.
That's voluntary poverty too, altho we would like to think romantically
about it as freedom from care.
Pray for us, and God bless you.
In
Christ
Dorothy
Day
P.S. I speak as to a kindred soul. My royalty check went in 10 minutes.
[Dorothy Day]
[Peter Maurin Farm, 469
Bloomingdale Rd.]
[Pleasant Plains, Staten Island,
N.Y.]
PAX
Dec. 20, 1951 [possibly 1952?]
Dear Hilda –
Thank you for your lovely letter of Sept 30!
Please excuse delay. I've been travelling about the country & am not
half done yet. What a life you have! I envy you living in Ireland near the sea.
Yes, you must come to one our retreats. They are going better than ever
this year. A_ _ became a Catholic as a result of one.
Tamar is having a hard winter with her little flock. Too shut in. Their
house is too small. They are fearfully overcrowded. A big family needs a big
house to be happy.
I'm writing a new book on The Little Flower and I'm hoping it sells well
enough _ for me to help her build a big extra living room in back & a porch
on the front. She lives in real poverty, poor child. Pray for her.
I'm enjoying this trip very much. It is both work and vacation. There is
so much to write about - I could fill two Catholic Workers!
Thank you very much for writing me. A Happy Christmas and New Year to
you all
In
Christ
Dorothy
Day
Comment from Olga Marlin:
I remember mother talking about Dorothy Day, as she did about many other people. She became friends with Karl Stern and often talked about him. [Several of the Marlin children became friends for a while with the Stern children in Montreal in 1947-1951.]
Excerpts from Biography of Dorothy Day by Jim Forest:
Comment from Olga Marlin:
I remember mother talking about Dorothy Day, as she did about many other people. She became friends with Karl Stern and often talked about him. [Several of the Marlin children became friends for a while with the Stern children in Montreal in 1947-1951.]
Excerpts from Biography of Dorothy Day by Jim Forest:
The following excerpts were originally written for the Encyclopedia of American Catholic History, under the heading "Servant of God Dorothy Day". It was updated for the Catholic Worker web site 2013. Forest is the author of All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day, published by Orbis Press. The bold face comments in brackets are by John Tepper Marlin, son of Hilda van Stockum to whom the letters above were forwarded as HvS's executor.
Dorothy Day
“What you did to the least person, you did to me.” Matthew, 25:40
[Dorothy Day] was born into a journalist’s family
in Brooklyn, New York, on November 8, 1897. After surviving the San Francisco
earthquake in 1906, the Day family moved into a tenement flat on Chicago's
South Side. It was a big step down in the world, made necessary because [her
father] John Day was out of work. When [he] was appointed sports editor of a
Chicago newspaper, the Day family moved into a comfortable house on the North
Side. Here Dorothy began to read books that stirred her conscience. A novel by
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, inspired Day to take long walks in poor
neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side, the area where much of Sinclair’s novel
was set. These long walks were the start of a life-long attraction to areas
many people avoid. [Upton Sinclair
professed his love for Inez Milholland in a letter to her. JTM]
Dropping out of [the University of
Illinois in 1916, to avoid burdening her father,] she moved to New York where
she found a job reporting for The Call, the city's one socialist
daily; she covered rallies and demonstrations and interviewed people ranging
from butlers to revolutionaries. [That
year 1916 there were many demonstrations for Votes for Women, the War in
Europe, and so forth. JTM]
She next worked for The Masses,
a magazine that opposed American involvement in the European war. In September,
the Post Office rescinded the magazine's mailing permit. Federal officers
seized back issues, manuscripts, subscriber lists and correspondence. Five
editors were charged with sedition. Day, the newest member of the staff, was
able to get out the journal’s final issue. [The
editor of The Masses, Max Eastman,
was in love with Inez Milholland, who married my mother’s uncle, Eugen
Boissevain. Max speaks highly of Eugen in his book Great Companions. JTM]
In November 1917 Day went to prison for
being one of forty women arrested in front of the White House for protesting
women's exclusion from the electorate. Arriving at a rural workhouse, the women
were roughly handled. The women responded with a hunger strike. Finally they
were freed by presidential order. [And
the President changed his mind about supporting the Anthony Amendment. It soon
passed the Congress and was ratified as the 19th Amendment by the
last state in 1920. JTM]
Returning to New York, Day felt that
journalism was a meager response to a world at war. In the spring of 1918, she
signed up for a nurses’ training program in Brooklyn. [Later, she moved to the farm on Staten Island. JTM]
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