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FIELD FURNITURE 60.
MARIETTA, GEORGIA
BOOK REVIEWS
EDITED BY EILEEN HALL
3087 Old Jonesboro Road, Hapeville, Georgia
Each issue of this Book Page
is confided to the patronage of
Mary, Mediatrix of Ail Graces,
with the hope that every read
er and every contributor may
be specially favored by her
and her Divine Son.
GROWING UP TOGETHER,
edited by Eugene S. Geissler
(Fides, $3.95).
(Reviewed by Rev. John Schro
der, S.J.)
Here family life, in both its
natural and supernatural ele
ments, is treated. The authors,
six mothers, four fathers, and a
priest, are to be congratulated
for their attractive and prac
tical handling of the problem.
They find children complex
creatures with many sides need
ing to be properly awakened,
developed, and educated. They
give many practical hints on
how to help children grow up
gracefully, artistically, respect
fully, naturally, socially, music
ally, spiritually, and apostolic-
ally.
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MARIETTA, GEORGIA
MARIETTA, GEORGIA
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410 WEST ANDERSON STREET
PHONE 9-5071 MARIETTA, GA.
JOHNNY WALKER
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MARIETTA, GEORGIA
THE VEIL OF VERONICA,
by Gertrud von le Fort (Sheed
& Ward, published 1934 . . .
listing not available.)
(Reviewed by Elizabeth Hester)
A year or two ago Sheed &
Ward inaugurated a program
for reprinting certain Catholic
books of timeless appeal. As far
as I know The Veil of Veronica
has not been singled out for this
honor, but if votes are being
taken I hope the following short
discussion will count. As it is, I
can give no other excuse for this
review except that the book is
available at the Notre Dame
Shop Library in Atlanta, and
any promotional attention Miss
Von le Fort gets, she deeply de
serves.
The Veil of Veronica is a
novel, the story of the coming
into the Church of a fifteen-
year-old girl. A co-theme, close
ly linked with the child’s con
version, is how she effects the
ultimate participation in the
Sacraments of an aunt. In a
sense the aunt is more import
ant to such message as the story
contains than the child; this is so
because the entire action of the
plot revolves around the curious
fact that the aunt, though very
early in life graced with the
most undeniable conversion, has
never been able to bring herself
to accept Baptism. When the
child Veronica is converted, the
aunt herself is swept along at
last to Baptism, but, again, she
stops short before reception of
the Eucharist. The final convul
sive drama of the book is whol
ly concerned with the accession
to peace of this strange tortured
woman. The aunt of Veil of Ve
ronica seems a rare almost im
probable case. Yet who has not
a little bit of her, since in es
sence nothing is involved except
a refusal to admit God?
Technically this novel is not a
very high-toned achievement.
The .author wrote another novel
much later (The Song of the
Scaffold, also available at the
NDBL) which craftsmanwise is
a very fine accomplishment. Yet
I hold that The Veil of Veronica
is really the more successful
book. While it contains occas
ional emotional excesses and
passages that badly need prun
ing, yet its basic energy over
rides the flaws. On the other
hand, if The Song of the Scaf
fold contained such flaws of
composition as The Veil, it is
doubtful that it could stand up
under the drag of them.
The Veil of Veronica is not
only that hen’s tooth rarity, a
successful story of a conversion,
it is an even rarer phenomenon;
it contains convincing suggest
ions of a mystical element. As a
rule, doors that open without
apparent physical assistance, ef
fusions about “felt presences,”
etc., are, even to the most de
vout, more embarrassing than
convincing. Not so Miss Von
le Fort’s doors and presences;
they compel respect and con
sequently the sweet freedom to
believe. Here is a hand to hold,
a strong back to lean against. By
infinite grace she suggests in
finite strength, anticipating that
same great paradox that we
know, of God: That the most
exquisite delicacy is somehow
the ultimate in power.
Thuringia, suffered m.uch from
the German nobles of his court
who did not understand her
consuming love for God and for
Plis poor. Heart-broken at the
death of her beloved husband,
who had set out with his cous
in Emperor Frederick II on an
unsuccessful crusade to the Holy
Land. Elizabeth and her chil
dren were driven from the cas
tle, and she devoted herself to
the care of the sick poor, be
coming one of the first members
of the Third Order of St, Fran
cis, of which she is a patron.
Her story is expertly told by
Miss Thompson, a lecturer at
the University of Rochester, au
thor of other books for young
people, and also a Franciscan
tertiary.
Ellen Tarry, author of the bi
ography of the Philadelphia
heiress who found her vocation
at the feet of Pope Leo XIII,
also has previously written sev
eral books. She studied at one of
Mother Drexel’s schools in Rock
Castle, Va., and received her di
ploma from the Mother Found
ress herself-. She writes lovingly
and gratefully of her spiritual
mother and the wealthy Drexel
family whose generosity to the
poor came to such glorious frui
tion in the work begun by their
daughter Kate, when the Holy
Father said to her, “My child,
why don’t you become a mis
sionary yourself?”
PUBLISHERS COMBINE
Farrar, Straus and Cudahy,
Inc., now publishers and dis
tributors of McMullen Books,
Inc., have announced that they
will continue to expand the Mc-
Cullen imprint, reissuing certain
titles now out of print and also
adding new titles to the list.
.Founded in 1945, the McMul
len Company developed an im
portant Catholic list including
Father Robert I Gannon’s After
Black Coffee, Father Moffatt’s
“Sister” Series, Bishop Fulton J.
Sheen’s Jesus, Son of Mary, Fa
ther Vincent McCorry’s Most
Worthy of All Praise, and Msgr.
John S. Kennedy’s Light on the
Mountain.
After Black Coffee, Father
Gannon’s collection of after-
dinner speeches, which has been
out of print for some time, will
be re-issued shortly; By The
Way, Sister by Father Moffatt, a
new title in the popular “Sister”
series, will be published this
November.
THE BULLETIN, August 9, 1953—PAGE 7
<• *1
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Marietta
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PHONE 7-3761
MARIETTA, GEORGIA
Obstacles always show up
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the goal. \
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F. E. A. SCHILLING, JR„ President and Treasurer
H. O. SCHILLING, Vice-President and Secretary
SCHILLINGS, Inc
Manufacturers and Contractors
ST. ELIZABETH'S THREE
CROWNS, by Blanche Jennings
Thompson (Farrar, Straus &
Cudahy, $1.95).
KATHERINE DREXEL,
FRIEND OF THE NEGLECT
ED, by Ellen Tarry (Farrar,
Straus & Cudahy, $1.95).
These are the latest additions
to the excellent series of Vision
Books, advertised as “action-
filled stories of saints and Cath
olic heroes for children,” and
especially written for boys and
girls from 9 to 15. Like the thir
ty previous titles in the series,
which won the Thomas More
Association Medal “for the most
distinguished contribution to
Catholic publishing during
1957,” these lives of two heroic
women are interesting and ap
pealing.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary, of
course, was a typically medi
eval “valiant woman.” Kath
erine Drexel of Philadelphia,
foundress of the Sisters of the
Blessed Sacrament for Indians
and Negroes (who conduct Our
Lady of Lourdes School in At
lanta), was a contemporary of
many still living. She died on
March 3, 1955, in the ninety-
seventh year of her life. The
similarities and contrasts be
tween the subjects of the two
books point up the pattern of
sanctity and the variations in
the means of its achievement.
In contrast to Mother Drexel’s
long life, for instance, St. Eliza-
b e t h packed a tremendous
amount of living into her 24
years, and was canonized just
four years after her death, with
her own three children at the
ceremony. This princess of Hun
gary, who became the wife of
the young Landgrave Louis of
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