The Duty of Delight (Image Books)

Dorothy Day was a Catholic convert and social activist. In 1933, she established the Catholic Worker Movement. These communities were aimed at helping the poor and homeless and tried to bring about social change. In addition to these communities, Dorothy Day also participated in the Civil Rights movement and nonviolent protest of World War II. Her cause for canonization has been opened, and so far she has been named a Servant of God. In my opinion, there are three important books one should read by her to better understand her. You of course want to read her autobiography The Long Loneliness, but after that you should also read All the Way to Heaven (selected letters she wrote) and The Duty of Delight (her diaries). I have already posted about her letters, but today I would like to tell you about the latter.

The book begins with an introduction describing how Dorothy Day kept a diary when she was younger. In doing so, she felt "recording happiness made it last longer," and "recording sorrow dramatized it and took away its bitterness." This habit she developed at an early age was maintained (probably with less frequency) in her adulthood as well. The introduction also tells us that her words "derived their meaning from the consistency, courage, and faithfulness of her life." The book then provides us a chronology from 1932 to 1980, which gives the reader context for the diary entries that are upcoming. The book is then divided into six parts by decades - 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980. Each part provides some further background information to give us additional context for the time period and what was going on in her life at the time. At 700 pages, this is a very thick book. I don't plan on reviewing this title, as I wouldn't want someone to review my personal diary (if I kept one). I will just say that the book is well-organized and provides us great insight into the mind and reality of this possibly soon-to-be saint. If you would like to know more about her than just what was written about her, then you should check out this book and its companion book All the Way to Heaven.

This book was provided to me for free by Image Books.

All the Way to Heaven (Image Books)

If you want to know, and I mean really know, a historical figure, read what they personally wrote. Although their writings of fiction and/or nonfiction are edifying to read, they will only provide you with a glimpse of their lives as they wanted it to be seen.  To truly understand them, you need to read what they really wrote, like letters or personal correspondence. In these very personal writings, they bare their soul and reveal a side of them you might have never seen otherwise. This is true of Dorothy Day's letters, as can be seen in the book All the Way to Heaven.

All the Way to Heaven is an anthology of letters written by Dorothy Day from 1923 to 1980. I did some research to find out the year in which she was born (which was 1897 if you were wondering). This means that these letters began when she was approximately 26 and continued til February of 1980, when she was 82 years old. This is impressive in and of itself. Like most twenty-somethings, her early letters deal with love and relationships. This first series was written ten years before she established the Catholic Worker movement. By reading these letters, we are able to see her life before God got a hold of her.

We then see a dramatic shift in the next series of letters.  By this time, she had become the leader of a lay movement and was addressing issues of labor and social justice. her focus had shifted towards helping others and away from herself. The rest of the letters continue to show her spiritual growth and maturity, as well as the advancement of her newspaper and the cause for which she fought her whole life - social justice. Besides writing to ordinary lay people interested in her cause, Dorothy Day also wrote to some of the most important people in her day, including bishops and Thomas Merton.

I did not read all the letters, as they span nearly 600 pages. However, during the ones I did read, I found myself wishing to read the responses she received to these letters. I feel it would have fleshed out the dialogue more and made for more interesting reading. I did like that there was an index at the end, as it was helpful if you were looking for a letter to a specific individual. While this book isn't technically a biography, it feels biographical in a way as you read through it. Overall, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

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