Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writings

Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writings, by Flannery O’Connor, edited by Robert Ellsburg, introduction by Richard Giannone, Orbis Books, 2003.

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) is a writer who is both beloved and baffling.  Kurt Vonnegut once referred to her as “the greatest short story writer of my generation,” who managed to create brilliant work while breaking all of the conventional wisdom about crafting fiction.  Her tales are full of violence, foolishness, churlishness, and comically flawed characters that display all of the seven deadly sins in shockingly vivid detail.  Her fiction is also filled with love, grace, faith, intelligence, and a bushel of other understated virtues.  

O’Connor’s Catholicism permeates her work, but unlike many overtly Christian writers, her integration of her faith into her prose is often easy to miss at first glance.  Her religious morals are often subtly and cleverly disguised by her focus on Southern Protestantism or the dark nihilistic void that is left in the absence of a religious moral compass.  Readers might not expect to find lessons on grace and redemption in tales of family annihilation, open blasphemy, and self-righteous preening, which is why this anthology is a useful guide to understanding the spiritual lessons of her work.

O’Connor suffered from crippling lupus for most of her life, leading to her early death at age thirty-nine. Her published writings consist of two novels, Wise Blood(1952) and The Violent Bear it Away(1960); thirty-one short stories (published in two short collections, A Good Man is Hard to Find(1955) and Everything that Rises Must Converge(1965), and the National Book Award-winning The Complete Stories(1971) containing the two aforementioned collections and several other pieces); numerous lectures, book reviews, and articles (many of which were compiled into the anthologies Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose(1969) and The Presence of Grace: and Other Book Reviews(1983)); and mountains of personal correspondence, some of the best of which was printed in The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor(1979).

All of the aforementioned works are full of O’Connor’s thoughts on faith and religion’s role in culture and society, but as stated earlier, sometimes the “presence of grace” is hard to detect in her work amongst the muck and muddle of human folly, much as it is in real life.  Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writingsis meant to help highlight the role of religion and spirituality in her work. Even if one already owns all of O’Connor’s books, this book is valuable to readers because of a lengthy critical essay and numerous editorial and contextual comments.

The book opens with Richard Giannone’s introductory essay “Flannery O’Connor’s Dialogue With the Age.” The book is divided into five sections, reflecting O’Connor’s religious views, thoughts on the role of the Christian in society, critical assertions regarding religion in fiction, and ponderings on spiritual mysteries.  There is some topical overlap amongst the sections, with the exception of the third, which consists solely of the short story “Revelation.”  Ellsburg notes that all of O’Connor’s books have been used for this anthology.  Snippets from both of her novels, scenes from many of her short stories, passages from her lectures, and scores of her letters and reviews are included here, all arranged in order to emphasize her points about spirituality.

Like all essays that address the work of a really great writer, Giannone’s introduction doesn’t come close to capturing all of the depth and beauty of O’Connor’s work, but it’s still a very helpful introduction to her work and its themes.  Giannone provides a useful overview of the scholarship on O’Connor and a good summary of her life, as well as many salient arguments against the oft-stated assertion of secularists that religious themes have no place in serious fiction.  Another Catholic novelist, Alice Thomas Ellis, put it best when she said that, “Once you take away the religious element, you can’t write fiction. Well, you can, but it’s boring.”  Many adjectives can be used to describe O’Connor, but ‘boring’ is not one of them.

Most of the excerpts are short.  Some of her letters are only half a page in length, and some book passages only fill a couple of pages.  Each selection is carefully chosen in order to make a point either about O’Connor’s religious and artistic opinions, or how she managed to use unexpected and unconventional ways to insert her beliefs into her fiction.  A few choice scenes from Wise Blood, where the central character, Hazel Motes, proponent of the “Church Without Christ,” illustrate the folly of trying to run away from a God who is always present everywhere.

When many people think of religious fiction, they think of preachy moralizing, saccharine protagonists who are always rewarded for their virtue, and one-dimensional atheistic villains. None of that applies to O’Connor, who was never one for sugar-coating the truth.  Sometimes the innocent suffer.  Monsters walk the earth in human form.  Humans blame God for their own destructiveness.  In Spiritual Writings, O’Connor expressed her annoyance at people who labeled her a “Catholic writer,” preferring instead to call herself a “Christian realist.”  A substantial percentage of this book is devoted to O’Connor’s literary theories, and her thoughts about what constitutes the perfect balance of religious themes in fiction ought to be required reading for all aspiring writers who want to write about Christian themes.

The one short story reproduced in its entirety, “Revelation,” is an interesting choice. It’s a very good story, but there are so many others that directly address the relationship between God and man that it’s not quite clear why “Revelation” was selected for inclusion and not others.  “Revelation” is the story of Ruby Turpin, a woman who is securely convinced of her own moral superiority and increasingly exasperated by the people she views as her moral and social inferiors.  Turpin spends a rather disconcerting day in a doctor’s waiting room, and gradually the reader learns just how disgusted she is by the “white trash” that surrounds her and her patronizing attitudes towards black people.  The climax of the story, where Turpin receives a world-rocking vision about the state of her own soul and others’ souls, ought to give readers pause over their own lives and evaluate their souls in a different light. The questions O’Connor raises over what truly makes one morally superior and closer to God are not directly answered in the text, which is just as well– readers really need to come up with conclusions on their own.  O’Connor is full of opinions, but didacticism has no place in her prose.

One of the most insightful portions of Spiritual Writingsconsists of O’Connor’s letters from The Habit of Being.  In them, we see glimpses of O’Connor’s personal life, especially her friendship with an anonymous correspondent.  We see O’Connor’s wonder and joy at being a Catholic, as well as her distress when her friend decides to leave the Catholic Church, and O’Connor’s cheerful but disconcerted acknowledgement of her own impeding mortality.

Since Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writingsprovides some spoilers for some of O’Connor’s fiction, this book may not be the best introduction to her work.  Personally, I would recommend this anthology to readers who are already fans of O’Connor and who want to gain a better appreciation for the religious dimension of her work.  If one is not already familiar with her, I suggest that those who have not yet discovered the joys of her work begin by reading some of her short stories and one of her novels, or possibly The Habit of Beingbefore reading Spiritual Writings.  

Spiritual Writingswill probably be of most use to those readers who are familiar with O’Connor’s fiction but would like a guide to understanding her religious themes better.  The juxtaposition of excerpts from her fiction, her personal musings on literature, and her thoughts on religion will help the reader see the hidden hand of God in each of her works, and quite possibly help readers better understand religious themes in all kinds of fiction.  Indeed, after perusing Spiritual Writings, many people may gain a better understanding of how fiction that does nottake religion seriously may sometimes be thematically and intellectually lacking.

–Chris Chan

A Father Brown Mystery

Here is a review of a local production of "A Father Brown Mystery" in Milwaukee, in the Volume 22, No. 6 May/June 2019 edition of Gilbert!

Solving a Case with Father Brown

By Chris Chan

Chestertonians who have dreamed of one day actually solving a case with Father Brown had their chance earlier this year when Morning Star Productions in Milwaukee, Wisconsin put on A Father Brown Mystery. Morning Star Productions focuses on historical and Christian-themed plays, often involving audience movement and participation. For example, their spring play Underground Railroadhas small groups of people join Harriet Tubman on an outdoor journey to help a runaway slave escape, meeting various friends and foes along the way.

A Father Brown Mystery is a fifty-minute interactive play. This production was held at St. Mark’s Episcopalian Church in Milwaukee. There are no programs or cast list, and audience members do not stay in one place very long. You start in the church meeting room, where the actor playing Father Brown (He was probably cast in part for his resemblance to Mark Williams, who plays the role on the BBC series. This is not to say he got the role strictly because of his looks– he gave a very warm, intelligent performance) greets you and welcomes you to the little 1930’s English country church jumble sale (no attempt is made to explain why a Catholic priest is holding a fundraiser at an Anglican church) and hands out slips of paper with the five suspects and five means of murder. You're supposed to put your name and email address on them, though Fr. Brown makes a point of saying that he doesn't know what an email address is (it sounds like something that will be invented in the future).

The members of the audience (usually around eighteen, give or take a few) are led into a passageway connecting the meeting hall to the main church, where you "overhear" two suspects having a discussion, then meet the first two suspects, and the local doctor explains the mysterious death. Then everybody's led into the church nave, where you meet the third suspect, then you meet the fourth suspect in the back pews, and you then walk into the narthex to meet the fifth and last suspect. At that point, the audience members have fifteen minutes to walk back and forth amongst the settings to ask the characters anything they like. The intelligent audience members will devote three minutes to each suspect and make sure to ask if they can provide any evidence to eliminate a murder method. Afterwards, everybody goes into the sacristy for the denouement, where all is explained and the killer is revealed. (It’s a busy schedule for the actors. On two consecutive weekends, they had a few shows Friday evening, a full day of performances Saturday, and several performances on Sunday.)

SPOILERS– the play is based on Chesterton’s original story "The Vampire of the Village," but I didn't get the answer right despite knowing the story well (if you do, you get two free tickets for another show) because I noticed they'd changed a handful of little points, leading me to the false conclusion that they'd changed the solution in order to prevent spoilers. Plus, I think I must have misheard a response, and forgot that the killer was probably lying. My Mom got the answer right going purely by instinct, but didn't fill out the form. 

There are some problems. The acoustics in certain rooms, and the fact that all of the actors have adopted British accents, means that some dialogue is hard to hear, so it’s easy to miss a crucial line. Father Brown is the primary role and the audience’s guide, and the five suspects are the victim’s widow Mrs. Maltravers, the actor Harold Horner, Horner’s father The Parson, villager Ms. Carstairs-Carew, and the manic actor Phoenix Fitzgerald (by far the juiciest of the supporting roles). The ambiguity of the cause of death is explained by the local doctor (the possibilities are drowning, pushing down a hill, poisoning, strangling, or clubbing), and the doctor reveals the true cause of death at the end, while Father Brown identifies the killer. The eighth and smallest role is the constable who makes the arrest.

It’s a remarkably efficient adaptation, although there are some places where the over-observant amateur sleuth (like me) may be sidetracked by red herrings (a reference to a cloak may lead somebody to investigate a cape hanging alone on a rack, which winds up having nothing to do with the play), and valuable time may be wasted rooting through the assorted items at the church jumble sale looking for a clue that isn’t there. It actually might’ve helped to have slipped a few clues here and there in locations for people not well-versed in church history, and it’s all too easy for audience members to spend too much time interviewing one suspect, thereby missing out on the chance to pick up crucial clues. People standing in the back can easily miss some important dialogue. These are technical issues, though, which could be swiftly fixed, and do not seriously damage the entertainment.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fun, far more faithful to GKC's work than the BBC series, and entertaining. I highly recommend it, and I’d be thrilled to see other Chesterton mysteries adapted in a similar manner.

For more information on Morning Star Productions, please see their website at http://morningstarproductions.org.

Dorothy Day: An Introduction to Her Life and Thought. By Terrence C. Wright, Ignatius Press, 2018.

Dorothy Day: An Introduction to Her Life and Thoughtis a brief overview of the life and work of Dorothy Day.  The operative word is an “introduction.”  It’s short, concise and informative.  Its brevity makes it possible to read it in its entirety in a single sitting.  However, if one is already well-versed in Day’s career and life, it’s not going to provide too much new information that the Day enthusiasts won’t already know. Therefore, this book is highly recommended for people who want to learn more about this influential Catholic figure, but it covers well-travelled ground for those who already know about her career.

An interesting point in the introduction to the book is that the author spoke to two priests, and they had polar opposite reactions to the possibility of Day’s life and career being taught to Catholics, due to political and social issues and differing interpretations of her personal philosophy.  Wright makes it clear that he believes that Day should be studied by all Catholics, that she was loyal to Catholic theological teachings, and simultaneously preached concern and protection for the poor and downtrodden.  Often, people take an either/or approach to orthodox theology and social teachings, favoring one over the other, but Wright stresses that both are necessary for a complete approach to faith and living out the teachings of one’s religion.

This book is Day’s life and ideas for beginners, highly recommended for those who are just beginning to explore her career and approach to faith.

–Chris Chan

An Immovable Feast: How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance.  By Tyler Blanski, Ignatius Press, 2018.

An Immovable Feastis a religious conversion memoir.  Tyler Blanski powerfully and honestly describes his coming of age story, as he charts his personal development as well as the slow development and metamorphosis of his religious beliefs.

There is something deeply powerful about Blanski’s frank and detailed account of his personal growth.  He opens the story with his fundamentalist Baptist youth, and charts his adolescent path that took him away from organized religion but still kept him interested in what he termed spirituality.  Eventually, he would pursue a career as an Anglican cleric in the Midwest, and recounts his friendships, misadventures, and mental and spiritual gymnastics as he was constantly challenged.  Over time, all of his presuppositions were shattered, and Blanski and his wife took a different path, entering the Catholic Church.

This is a story about searching for love.  The twin hearts of the memoir are the love stories between Blanski and God, and Blanski and his wife.  An Immovable Feastis notable for its unflinching honesty.  Blanski never shies away from describing the time he spent wandering aimlessly, binge-watching television instead of sleeping, and working jobs that left him mentally and spiritually unfulfilled.  After Blanski finds what he thought was his vocation in Anglicanism, he dreamt of building the perfect church.  The more Blanski studied Catholicism, the more he came to believe that an even better church already existed.  We see clashes with his other Anglican seminarians and teachers, dealing with the illness of a child, and a slow, steady climb towards maturity.

There are countless conversion stories, each one unique despite the similar endings.  Gorgeously and powerfully written, An Immovable Feastis an intellectual and spiritual tour de force that is not to be missed.

–Chris Chan

The Habit of Being.  By Flannery O’Connor, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1988.

Flannery O’Connor is probably my favorite American writer.  Her work is permeated in her own unique voice: wry, earthy, humorous, frank, profound, and unflinchingly honest.  Her world is distinctly her own, filled with darkness and light, where the characters are deeply flawed but always children of God, and the morals of her stories are always clear but never obvious.

O’Connor suffered from lupus, and spent much of her far too short life on her family farm, writing and raising peacocks.  Before she died at the age of thirty-nine, she left a small but powerful assortment of writings behind her, consisting of two novels, thirty-two short stories, and assorted short nonfiction and spiritual writings.  The Habit of Beingis a collection of O’Connor’s correspondence, consisting of assorted letters that O’Connor wrote to friends over several years.  It serves as both a biography and a series of spiritual musings.

The prose in the letters is often unpolished, and it carries more weight and presence because it contains all of her typos and spelling errors.  The letters come across as an intelligent woman explaining her worldview and baring her soul, as well as explaining as why she wrote, and what parts of herself and her religious beliefs she incorporated into her work and why.

In one letter, she writes:

“I write the way I do because (not though) I am a Catholic. This is a fact and nothing covers it like the bald statement. However, I am a Catholic peculiarly possessed of the modern consciousness, that thing Jung describes as unhistorical, solitary, and guilty. To possess this within the Church is to bear a burden, the necessary burden for the conscious Catholic. It’s to feel the contemporary situation at the ultimate level. I think that the Church is the only thing that is going to make the terrible world we are coming to endurable; the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the body of Christ and that on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it. This may explain the lack of bitterness in the stories.”

O’Connor has often been described as a creator of Southern Gothic, a crafter of grotesques and eccentrics.  This is both true and an oversimplification.  O’Connor was not creating a fantasy world or an exaggerated or caricaturized version of society, but instead, she accentuated certain flaws in society and in her characters in order to better illustrate how sin is a poison and how the worst dangers to society and individuals can be the problems that most people least suspect, or what is even more likely, how things that people don’t believe are problems turn out to be far more dangerous than the average person ever imagines.

O’Connor writes:

“The stories are hard but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism. I believe that there are many rough beasts now slouching toward Bethlehem to be born and that I have reported the progress of a few of them, and when I see these stories described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.”

Going into more detail as to what she means by “Christian realism,” O’Connor writes:

“I believe too that there is only one Reality and that that is the end of it, but the term, “Christian Realism,” has become necessary for me, perhaps in a purely academic way, because I find myself in a world where everybody has his compartment, puts you in yours, shuts the door and departs. One of the awful things about writing when you are a Christian is that for you the ultimate reality is the Incarnation, the present reality is the Incarnation, and nobody believes in the Incarnation; that is, nobody in your audience. My audience are the people who think God is dead. At least these are the people I am conscious of writing for.”

In her letters, the people O’Connor is “conscious of writing for” are often close friends, though others are more distant acquaintances looking for details of her thoughts on religion, Catholic doctrine, and all sorts of other principles.  O’Connor never comes across as a proselytizer, but rather as an explainer– she provides her own pithy definitions of terms and explanations of doctrines.  She always comes across as well-educated and original in her attempts to explain details that might intimidate lesser writers.

“Dogma can in no way limit a limitless God. The person outside the Church attaches a different meaning to it than the person in. For me a dogma is only a gateway to contemplation and is an instrument of freedom and not of restriction. It preserves mystery for the human mind. Henry James said the young woman of the future would know nothing of mystery or manners. He had no business to limit it to one sex.”

As talented as O’Connor is at serving as a Catholic apologist, she is just as skilled as describing herself, her goals, and her relationship with her work.  

“I won’t ever be able entirely to understand my own work or even my own motivations. It is first of all a gift, but the direction it has taken has been because of the Church in me or the effect of the Church’s teaching, not because of a personal perception or love of God. For you to think this would be possible because of your ignorance of me; for me to think it would be sinful in a high degree. I am not a mystic and I do not lead a holy life. Not that I can claim any interesting or pleasurable sins (my sense of the devil is strong) but I know all about the garden variety, pride, gluttony, envy and sloth, and what is more to the point, my virtues are as timid as my vices. I think sin occasionally brings one closer to God, but not habitual sin and not this petty kind that blocks every small good. A working knowledge of the devil can be very well had from resisting him…

However, the individual in the Church is, no matter how worthless himself, a part of the Body of Christ and a participator in the Redemption. There is no blueprint that the Church gives for understanding this. It is a matter of faith and the Church can force no one to believe it. When I ask myself how I know I believe, I have no satisfactory answer at all, no assurance at all, no feeling at all. I can only say with Peter, Lord I believe, help my unbelief. And all I can say about my love of God, is, Lord help me in my lack of it. I distrust pious phrases, particularly when they issue from my mouth. I try militantly never to be affected by the pious language of the faithful but it is always coming out when you least expect it. In contrast to the pious language of the faithful, the liturgy is beautifully flat.”

A recurring theme of O’Connor’s fiction and letters is the idea that grace is found where one least expects it. Throughout her letters, she hammers home the point that the people who see the Catholic Church as twisted mass of complex and unnecessary rules are flat-out wrong.  For O’Connor, the Church is force that frees, inspires, and educates. Leaving the Church would mean entering a darker, duller, and danker world, lacking the fullness of grace.

“In the face of anyone’s experience, someone like myself who has had almost no experience, must be humble. I will never have the experience of the convert, or of the one who fails to be converted, or even in all probability of the formidable sinner; but your effort not to be seduced by the Church moves me greatly. God permits it for some reason though it is the devil’s greatest work of hallucination. Fr. [Jean] de Menasce told somebody not to come into the Church until he felt it would be an enlargement of his freedom. This is what you are doing and you are right, but do not make your feeling of the voluptuous seductive powers of the Church into a hard shell to protect yourself from her. I suppose it is like marriage, that when you get into it, you find it is the beginning, not the end, of the struggle to make love work.

I think most people come to the Church by means the Church does not allow, else there would be no need their getting to her at all. However, this is true inside as well, as the operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug…

I have some long and tall thoughts on the subject of God’s working through nature, but I will not inflict them on you now. I find I have a habit of announcing the obvious in pompous and dogmatic periods. I like to forget that I’m only a storyteller.”

The Habit of Being is an easy and enjoyable read– O’Connor’s short missives make for concise, clever, and clear apologetics, and make their points with more wit, style, and good humor that most writers.  O’Connor comes across as more than a skilled writer– after reading The Habit of Being, one soon wants her as a pen pal.

–Chris Chan

Target Africa: Ideological Neo-colonialism of the Twenty-first Century. By Obianuju Ekeocha, Ignatius Press, 2018.

In this powerful and searing book, Obianuju Ekeocha provides a sharp critique of the ways that foreign aid and non-governmental organizations are trying to use their money to change the culture, morals, and society of the nations of Africa.  Ekeocha is a biomedical scientist and activist who loves Africa and is determined to prevent outside powers from reshaping the continent in their own preferred image.

Ekeocha wrote this book because of her anger over the Western powers who seek to use their power and prestige to bribe, shame, or otherwise coerce the independent nations of Africa to adopt policies and attitudes on sexuality, abortion, gender, contraception, and the family. Ekeocha notes that numerous influential philanthropists and groups ranging from charities to governments to the United Nations have very strong ideas about the directions Africa should take. Ekeocha argues that the Western forces may mean well, but they are prescribing the wrong solutions to problems, perhaps even non-existent problems facing Africa.  Indeed, Ekeocha suggests that the powers of the West could learn a few– perhaps a great many– things from the way Africa regards the family and human life.

This book is important reading for people interested in African culture and global politics, as well as people who are interested in finding out how money and influential organizations can affect governments. Ekeocha writes a woman who loves Africa, and is very proud of her culture and the attitudes and accomplishments that the continent has achieved and developed, and she is determined to prevent people who do not understand the region from changing it or buying the governments of Africa.

More information on Ekeocha and her work can be found at http://cultureoflifeafrica.com/.

–Chris Chan

George Washington: His Legacy of Faith, Character, and Courage. By Demi, Ignatius Press, 2018.

While many of the books reviewed on this website are directed towards adults seeking to expand and better understand their faith, this review will discuss a recently published book aimed at shaping the spirituality and character of young people.  In this illustrated children’s book, the prolific author and artist Demi has created a short biography of George Washington.  Special focus is placed on Washington’s leadership skills, moral views, and sense of honor, but Demi places Washington’s religious faith at the heart of this book.

The book is mostly full of imagery, consisting of Demi’s pictures, with about a paragraph of informative text on each page, providing insight on some aspect of history.  George Washingtonopens with the following statement:

“The inspiring Legacy of George Washington is one of faith, character, and courage.  It is visible through the many events told in this book.  It began even before he was born, with his ancestors who had been involved in key moments in British history.  George Washington certainly learned from their stories, as we can learn from his.”  

The first several pages cover centuries of history, focusing on Washington’s ancestors and the inspirational ways that several prominent members of his family tree shaped the character and values of their descendant.  Soon, the book moves into Washington’s own career, highlighting certain incidents that shaped the future president’s career.  Heavy stress is placed on religious and spiritual points.  Though not a Catholic himself, Washington was inspired by a book on moral behavior written by Jesuit priest when he was a young teenager.  Washington also prayed frequently, and once was inspired a miraculous vision– the details of which serve as a pivotal moment in this mini-biography.

Interestingly, Demi’s book is one of the latest entries in a developing paradigm shift in the study of the religious views of the Founding Fathers.  For generations, many biographers minimized the role that religion played in their worldviews and personal lives, stressing that most (though not all) of the Founding Fathers had a largely Deist and skeptical perspective, and therefore had no real interest in religious matters.  This was by no means a universal characterization, but it is still a prominently held belief in many historical circles.

In a first for Catholic Book Reviews Monthly, Demi has provided a brief interview regarding the book:

CHAN.  How did you get the idea to write this children's book about Washington?

DEMI.  I was inspired to write George Washington when I read of his celestial vision at Valley Forge, first published in The National Tribune, Volume 4, No. 12, December 1880 and preserved in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

CHAN.What sources did you use when researching this book?

DEMI. My sources were every picture and book I could find on George Washington. Some of my favorite books are:

Washington’s Prayers, Norristown, PA. Published for the Benefit of the           Washington Memorial Chapel, 1907.

George Washington, The Christian, William J. Johnson, Arlington, Texas, Christian Liberty Press, 1919.

The Religious Opinions of Washington, E.C. McGuire, ed., N.Y: Harper Brothers, 1836.

The Writings of George Washington, Jared Sparks, Boston, Ferdinand Andrews Publisher, 1838.

A Concise History of the American Republic, Samuel Eliot Morison, New York: Oxford University Press, 1958.

CHAN.  What lessons/morals would you like young children to learn from this book?

DEMI.  Moral lessons that young children could learn from this book would be to follow in the footsteps of George himself: At the age of 13 George began copying and memorizing The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior, written by French Jesuit priests. These rules were meant to train young men to serve God and neighbor. They helped form his sense of right and wrong, his strong faith, and his upright nature. Besides morality, faith and character, they also developed his marvelous qualities of patience, humility, giving, discipline, vigor, meditation and wisdom.

CHAN. Is there anything about Washington that you wanted to include but didn't for any reason?

DEMI.  I would have loved to include ALL of George Washington’s prayers written by himself for each day of the week; for mornings and evenings. God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ was the Light of his life.

We simply didn’t have space for them all in this book.

CHAN. What did you learn about Washington's spiritual life as you researched and wrote this book?

DEMI.  I learned about George Washington’s powerful transcendental nature as I researched his spiritual life.

George Washingtonis an excellent introduction for young children to learn about the Founding Father.  Adults may discover certain details about the man’s life that they were previously unaware of, and they may therefore be inspired to track down other studies of Washington from the list mentioned earlier.  Parents and children will find George Washingtona useful tool to help inspire a love of history, and the man depicted in Demi’s book may well serve as a model template for behavior and character for many kids.

–Chris Chan