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Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion
Robert Coles first met Dorothy Day over thirty-five years ago when, as a medical student, he worked in one of her Catholic Worker soup kitchens. He remained close to this inspiring and controversial woman until her death in 1980. His book, an intellectual and psychological portrait, confronts candidly the central puzzles of her life: the sophisticated Greenwich Village novelist and reporter who converted to Catholicism; the single mother who raised her child in a most unorthodox "family"; her struggles with sexuality, loneliness, and pride; her devout religious conservatism coupled with radical politics. This intense portrait is based on many years of conversation and correspondence, as well as tape-recorded interviews.
206 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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About the author
Robert Coles
244 books77 followersChild psychiatrist, author, Harvard professor.
Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard College.
Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
January 1, 2009
This book, this woman changed my life. At the time I read it, I was myself an agnostic (and former fundamental protestant) and a single mama. I was so powerfully moved by her conversion experience and authentic life of voluntary poverty. I especially related to her opposition to institutions, and her struggles with Church hierarchy. She didn't want to be called a saint, she said that anyone could do what she did. I have since converted to Catholicism, focusing on the actions of Jesus ("Red Letter Christian"), and the Social Justice teachings. And it was Dorothy who led me here.
April 25, 2016
A vivid portrait of Dorothy Day. While I don't think the author fully appreciates Day's Catholic faith, this synthesis of his many long interviews with her left me with the impression of having sat down to tea with the woman herself. A short and simple read, I recommend "Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion" to anyone who wishes to encounter this humble and saintly woman.
March 5, 2008
Dorothy Day was a radical Catholic who devoted her life to the homeless and disenfranchised. As a previous reviewer stated, she was "the real deal". She co-founded The Catholic Worker movement and published its newsletter while opening soup kitchens throughout New York. Robert Cole knew her well and brings her humanity (controversy and all) to these pages.
June 9, 2023
i love her :’)
June 6, 2024
Great follow-up to ‘The Long Loneliness.’
June 28, 2016
This is a book about a woman whom I have admired for a long time. It was written by a man who spent many years talking to Dorothy Day and reading her books. Her autobiography The Long Loneliness is referred to often as are a number of her other books. Dorothy Day died in 1980. She converted to Catholicism at the age of 30 after a long search and a rather tumultuous life. Although this book was written by a man the audible people did a good job in picking a woman to read the book and manage some vocal inflection to characterize the author as opposed to The opinionated Dorothy day as an opinionated old lady. I say that lovingly although frankly I think her Catholic beliefs are somewhat disgusting. As one of the founders of the Catholic worker movement Dorothy Day was an amazing person. I didn't try too hard to reconcile her Catholic beliefs with her social activism. In some ways the Catholic worker is the left-wing version of the Salvation Army. Once after getting an MSW degree at Stony Brook I was looking for a job in New York City and considered moving into a Catholic worker house. I was in my mid 40s and they showed me the cot I would be sleeping on under a stairwell and I guiltily decided it was not for me.
June 11, 2007
Dorothy Day is the real deal. One of the most inspiring and under appreciated humans of the 20th century. Founded the Catholic Workers Movement during the Depression (after converting to catholicism in her 20s)and went on to be one of the greatest social activists in American history. Seriously amazing stuff. On her way to sainthood.
The bio itself is phenomenal. Written by a psychiatrist, it very much comes from a psychoanalytical prospective with greater emphasis on analyzing Day then on her history. Largely made up of interviews with Day and quotes from her own works.
The bio itself is phenomenal. Written by a psychiatrist, it very much comes from a psychoanalytical prospective with greater emphasis on analyzing Day then on her history. Largely made up of interviews with Day and quotes from her own works.
April 26, 2013
I think I will read some of her work. This was more a background and history of this controversial character.
June 19, 2016
“Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion” by Robert Coles is one of the Radcliffe College Biography Series depicting the lives of extraordinary women and Dorothy Day certainly belongs to this league of extraordinary women. They give us “a glimpse of ourselves and are a reflection of the human spirit. The biographies have included Hellen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy, Margaret Fuller, Gertrude Stein, Mary Cassatt and Simone Weil. Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1897. As she grew into a teenager she started living a bohemian life style. She considered herself a socialist and a friend of Communists, but she continued to read the Bible. She left college after her first year and went to live in New York. She worked as a reporter on a small socialist paper and continued to meet with the group she had become a member of. She was drawn to the people who were trying to change the country. She spoke out on her convictions with the labor organizations and joined in some picket lines. In 1917, at the age of 20, she was in jail in Washington, D.C, after marching with the suffragettes. She returned to Chicago reconnecting with her friends there where she met and married Barkeley Tobey who was a stranger to everyone. The marriage lasted less than a year. In 1920 he and Dorothy went to Europe for a while and then returned to Chicago again. She was jailed again while working with the International Workers of the World. In discussions with her much later in life in conversation with Robert Coles, he said Dorothy had a discomfort with her earlier life and would pull back when the subject was broached. She fell in love again at age 25 and married Foster Batterham. Theirs was a common law marriage she wrote in her autobiographical novel. Her daughter Tamara Teresa was born when she was 29. She and Foster were separated eight months later. Now with her and her daughter, Tamara, she began to think what she would do with her life. She started attending the Catholic Church and became a member during this period. This was during the depression and she did not see the Catholic Church actively working to reduce the weight on the poor and impoverished. She was ready to quit the Church before she had been a member but a year, when she met Peter Maurin. She tells Coles about her condition of surrender and the anger that she held against the Church. Coles quotes from Dorothy’s observations and motivations from her biography “The Long Loneliness.” ”There were Catholic Church members who were involved in helping the poor but there was no Catholic leadership. It was that very year (1929) that Pope Pius XI said sadly to Charon Cardijn, who was organizing laborers in Belgium, ‘The workers of the world are lost to the Church.’” She would work against that statement from 1932 until she died in 1980.
In Washington, D.C. at the poor people’s march on the US Government, she watched these poor and hungry workers praying for work (December 8. 1932) and some way to feed themselves, that she prayed to her God that he use her to aid in this work. When she returned to New York, Peter Maurin was waiting for her. She had been introduced to Maurin by an editor at Commonweal, a paper she had contributed to. They talked for days and the days became weeks- what could they do to help the Catholic Workers of the World who were in poor condition to help themselves. They decided to print a newspaper (they were both writers) that would instill hope into the workers and a way to come together to get some of their needs. Just the two of them wrote an eight page paper announcing the ‘Catholic Worker’ and the Catholic Worker Movement. Their first printing was 2500 copies and the first issue was May Day 1933. Within a few years the ‘Catholic Worker’ had a circulation of more than 150,000 and a readership of two and three times that because it was passed down from hand to hand. But Peter and Dorothy were not content to tell what the Church has to offer – They believed in Works. Together they founded the hospitality houses that became a part of American Culture. They began by renting a store or apartment and purchased supplies and started feeding whoever came in soup and coffee and whatever else they could scrample up. And they helped the poor and homeless who came in with one on one communication and talk and treated these people like, well people. A couple of years later the number of hospitality house had reached 30. Many people joined Peter and Dorothy as workers in the Catholic Workers Movement though many were not Catholic and some were atheists. Dorothy went on the road across the U.S. presenting her plans for hospitality houses and continued to write her column for the ‘Catholic Worker.’ Tere was always one column in every Catholic Worker that went out.
Dorothy Day took on many a controversy as she shared her visions with the World-At-Large. She stood up to Franco when he started The Spanish Civil War. She lost many readers who thought Franco was a Godsend against the Communists who had invaded Spain. During WW II she promoted her pacifism. Many in the Catholic Church saw her as irrelevant. The book is a long essay of Coles asking questions and Dorothy answering them. But she did more than just answer the questions that were asked. Dorothy’s mind was as sharp at 50 and 60 as it had been at 30 and since then she had read the Bible several times and had added many of the great writers who defined the world on earth.
On pride, Dorothy says, “If I were really free of the worst sin of them all, pride, I would not be upset by such talk. I’d forget it very quickly and get on with my work. I’m here to help out with all my strength, until I die- help out in this house of hospitality, our community here.”
The Catholic Worker Movement had its ups and downs. Many who thought Dorothy had a quality that distinguished her thinking and made it relevant to what was going on in the world also saw the Catholic Worker Movement as irrelevant or quaint. Especially during the 1930’s when the authority of the US Government became almost sacred to millions of people who benefited by the New Deal agencies and Social Security. In the 1930’s the word anarchism stirred up thoughts of chaos and random violence, but for Dorothy anarchism meant increased responsibility of one person to another or the individual to the community along with the much lessened sense of obligation. Dorothy’s motives were to pull people together- she aimed at their attitudes- at their moral value- she wanted to affect people’s everyday attitudes, their moral values, their politics and their morals of living.
Dorothy Day upon being called a utopian: “Sometimes when people call me a “utopian”, I say, no, I just have a different sense of time than many others have.”
Dorothy Day kept struggling with the issues of pacifism as she said, “it is a matter of grief to me that most of our Catholic Workers are not pacifists, but I also see how good it is that we have this attitude represented among us. Coles and Day talked about the forces of evil and the forces of good that led the lives of the poor to specific ways of thinking. Dorothy and Robert had both read the books of Simone Weil and they both knew the mix of conservative and radical thinking in “The Need for Roots” but Dorothy wished Simone had been able to enjoy the Catholic Church but her mysticism bypassed the church. Weil believed that the dignity of local associations, the revival of villages, provinces and regions would have a continuing place in the minds of men and contribute to a civic good, she had knowledge of the people of the world who had lifted themselves above the world of her day and in the world’s history. She knew about St. Francis of Assisi and St. Augustine. She knew of the writers of her times the world views of people who had stood on the backs of the people prior to them and had projected a different culture. Day had read extensively of the world she lived in and she knew by this reading how the world had come to be as it was.
Dorothy Day’s life is an inspiration for the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI used her conversion story as a ‘how-to” journey towards faith in a secularized environment. And last year at an address to the United States Congress (September, 2015) Pope Francis included Dorothy on a very short list of exemplary Americans. There was Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. and two Catholic Church members: Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day. Had Dorothy Day still been alive and watching TV during the broadcast when the Pope mentioned her name- she would have excused herself and gone to her room and started reading her Bible.
In Washington, D.C. at the poor people’s march on the US Government, she watched these poor and hungry workers praying for work (December 8. 1932) and some way to feed themselves, that she prayed to her God that he use her to aid in this work. When she returned to New York, Peter Maurin was waiting for her. She had been introduced to Maurin by an editor at Commonweal, a paper she had contributed to. They talked for days and the days became weeks- what could they do to help the Catholic Workers of the World who were in poor condition to help themselves. They decided to print a newspaper (they were both writers) that would instill hope into the workers and a way to come together to get some of their needs. Just the two of them wrote an eight page paper announcing the ‘Catholic Worker’ and the Catholic Worker Movement. Their first printing was 2500 copies and the first issue was May Day 1933. Within a few years the ‘Catholic Worker’ had a circulation of more than 150,000 and a readership of two and three times that because it was passed down from hand to hand. But Peter and Dorothy were not content to tell what the Church has to offer – They believed in Works. Together they founded the hospitality houses that became a part of American Culture. They began by renting a store or apartment and purchased supplies and started feeding whoever came in soup and coffee and whatever else they could scrample up. And they helped the poor and homeless who came in with one on one communication and talk and treated these people like, well people. A couple of years later the number of hospitality house had reached 30. Many people joined Peter and Dorothy as workers in the Catholic Workers Movement though many were not Catholic and some were atheists. Dorothy went on the road across the U.S. presenting her plans for hospitality houses and continued to write her column for the ‘Catholic Worker.’ Tere was always one column in every Catholic Worker that went out.
Dorothy Day took on many a controversy as she shared her visions with the World-At-Large. She stood up to Franco when he started The Spanish Civil War. She lost many readers who thought Franco was a Godsend against the Communists who had invaded Spain. During WW II she promoted her pacifism. Many in the Catholic Church saw her as irrelevant. The book is a long essay of Coles asking questions and Dorothy answering them. But she did more than just answer the questions that were asked. Dorothy’s mind was as sharp at 50 and 60 as it had been at 30 and since then she had read the Bible several times and had added many of the great writers who defined the world on earth.
On pride, Dorothy says, “If I were really free of the worst sin of them all, pride, I would not be upset by such talk. I’d forget it very quickly and get on with my work. I’m here to help out with all my strength, until I die- help out in this house of hospitality, our community here.”
The Catholic Worker Movement had its ups and downs. Many who thought Dorothy had a quality that distinguished her thinking and made it relevant to what was going on in the world also saw the Catholic Worker Movement as irrelevant or quaint. Especially during the 1930’s when the authority of the US Government became almost sacred to millions of people who benefited by the New Deal agencies and Social Security. In the 1930’s the word anarchism stirred up thoughts of chaos and random violence, but for Dorothy anarchism meant increased responsibility of one person to another or the individual to the community along with the much lessened sense of obligation. Dorothy’s motives were to pull people together- she aimed at their attitudes- at their moral value- she wanted to affect people’s everyday attitudes, their moral values, their politics and their morals of living.
Dorothy Day upon being called a utopian: “Sometimes when people call me a “utopian”, I say, no, I just have a different sense of time than many others have.”
Dorothy Day kept struggling with the issues of pacifism as she said, “it is a matter of grief to me that most of our Catholic Workers are not pacifists, but I also see how good it is that we have this attitude represented among us. Coles and Day talked about the forces of evil and the forces of good that led the lives of the poor to specific ways of thinking. Dorothy and Robert had both read the books of Simone Weil and they both knew the mix of conservative and radical thinking in “The Need for Roots” but Dorothy wished Simone had been able to enjoy the Catholic Church but her mysticism bypassed the church. Weil believed that the dignity of local associations, the revival of villages, provinces and regions would have a continuing place in the minds of men and contribute to a civic good, she had knowledge of the people of the world who had lifted themselves above the world of her day and in the world’s history. She knew about St. Francis of Assisi and St. Augustine. She knew of the writers of her times the world views of people who had stood on the backs of the people prior to them and had projected a different culture. Day had read extensively of the world she lived in and she knew by this reading how the world had come to be as it was.
Dorothy Day’s life is an inspiration for the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI used her conversion story as a ‘how-to” journey towards faith in a secularized environment. And last year at an address to the United States Congress (September, 2015) Pope Francis included Dorothy on a very short list of exemplary Americans. There was Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. and two Catholic Church members: Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day. Had Dorothy Day still been alive and watching TV during the broadcast when the Pope mentioned her name- she would have excused herself and gone to her room and started reading her Bible.
August 16, 2015
where life is brief, lower east side kitchen, talk to one of us engaging, UI socialism from TN abortion drifter, NYC Guadalupe parish, Catholic Worker paper family vs faceless govt program, have Lord in life, curiosity and idealism of young, Long Loneliness autobiography, worst sin pride, God is love and forgiveness, loose moral standards of radicals in 20’s, grow-up and stop being so selfish, a woman does not feel whole w/o a man, an alienist a psychologist per NYC, plenty of charity too little justice, who wants charity-dignity and worth better, political and social church appalling, Theresa of Avila John of Cross Catherine of Sienna Theresa of Lisieux, spiritual poverty or other, fdr not savior of worker, apathy like sloth a sin, small groups bear witness and change happens, workers and guests indistinguishable, students say lack courage or too selfish, to be teachers one to another spread gospel, overcome evil with good, open door to house with love, cynicism and arrogance need forgiveness to forgive self too, to live as one’s life not make sense w/o God.
July 8, 2011
As a current student at a Lasallian college, I often heard Dorothy Day's name intertwined with service acts. I didn't know very much about her until picking up this book and, for some reason, didn't feel comfortable delving straight into Day's own writing without reading some sort of biography first. Coles does a great job of introducing Day to those unfamiliar with her (like myself), but those who already know her may find it repetitive. This biography truly shines when Coles inserts quotes from his talks with Day and details their interactions; through thoughtful answers from Day and accessible writing from Coles, A Radical Devotion paints a picture of an intelligent, caring, and restless woman who always thought deeply about the actions she took.
May 15, 2016
Ostensibly Cole is a psychiatrist - this is troubling, as he seems to have zero understanding of the Catholic religion to which Day dedicated her life & which was the greatest influence on her. He makes no apparent attempt to understand it, either, preferring the obtuse & critical view of an outsider. He rambles, name-drops, projects his issues onto Day, & chokes the book with notes & digression.
To anyone interested in Day - truly Dorothy Day & her *whole* life, *whole* self - I'd suggest reading some of her own work, or basically any other biography ever.
If you like surface-level analysis & armchair academic nonsense, or enjoy any opportunity to bash the Catholic Church, then by all means waste some time on this.
See my progressive updates for more specific criticisms.
To anyone interested in Day - truly Dorothy Day & her *whole* life, *whole* self - I'd suggest reading some of her own work, or basically any other biography ever.
If you like surface-level analysis & armchair academic nonsense, or enjoy any opportunity to bash the Catholic Church, then by all means waste some time on this.
See my progressive updates for more specific criticisms.
September 9, 2018
Maybe the audiobook was not cast properly, maybe I should have known who Dorothy Day was before I started listening to this, maybe I should have read her autobiography and fiction before this, maybe some of that might have made this an easier read. My frustration and inability to identify with the story might also be a fault of my own. I still don't really know who Day was, I have some vague and severely limited recollection of Day's philosophy, yet little grasp of it, even after all 6+ hours of this audiobook. At times I felt like a forgetful student who had skipped the assigned reading, at times I felt being looked down upon by Day, at times I felt that the descriptions of these interviews were unnecessarily sentimental, imbued with meaning. Overall not something I would recommend.
May 30, 2009
radical but down-to-earth, humble but with a steely determination, short-fused but full of compassion.
dorothy day was an instruction manual, folks, on how to walk a moral minefield, finding divine direction DESPITE church and state.
a fascinating, amazing woman who lived good, didn't just think it. armchair philosopher? she'd spit in your eye.
dorothy day was an instruction manual, folks, on how to walk a moral minefield, finding divine direction DESPITE church and state.
a fascinating, amazing woman who lived good, didn't just think it. armchair philosopher? she'd spit in your eye.
March 10, 2010
Though grossly neglected in conservative evangelical circles, Dorothy Day lived the way of the cross with spit and attitude for much of the twentieth century. Her own writings have never been quite effective for me, but her life is her real story, and this biography by Coles does some of the best, if not the best, work in capturing her amazing life. Dorothy understood what Jesus asked and did it.
July 4, 2014
I knew very little about Dorothy Day, other than her work with the Catholic Worker Movement. Having read this biography, I am eager to read her writings and more books on her life and work and books that influenced her. Her story speaks to me on many levels and any superficial admiration I had for her has deepened. A true 20th century Doctor of the Church.
March 29, 2015
I found this book to be both an easier read and a more focused introduction to Dorothy's life than her autobiography (The Long Loneliness). There are significant, long quotes from Dorothy and excellent contextual framing from Coles. Reading both of these books gives an excellent feel for Dorothy's life both from her perspective and that of a third party (who was obviously inspired by her).
March 8, 2018
What a beautiful book, about a beautiful person. Just knowing that people like Dorothy Day - however few - have lived, live today and will live tomorrow, moves me deeply and brings me a quiet, serene, ameliorative joy and humility. I'm using few words here so that this serenity will last - a stirring work about a stirring individual.
March 8, 2008
Wouldn't it be remarkable if all Christians were as good at integrating the teachings of Jesus into their everyday lives as Dorothy Day was? If that were the case, there would be no Republicans left to vote down food stamps programs.
December 9, 2016
After the election of Trump, I felt the need to read about someone that I found inspiring and Dorothy Day fits the bill. Reading Coles's recollections of her helped me understand her as a human and to admire her fortitude. Beautifully told and well-rounded.
Read
August 17, 2009essential and good
April 24, 2012
I really enjoyed this introduction to an American saint. I look forward to reading more of her work!
October 1, 2012
I only made it to page 111. Later in my life, I understood her struggle to slowly develop faith through action rather than the other way around.
February 11, 2014
A great biography of a tremendous woman. Not your standard biography: instead of a linear as count of her life, it rather is organized thematically around her ideas.
November 2, 2015
Interesting book about a woman I greatly admire!
August 22, 2015
I had never heard of Dorothy Day before I read this book (gasp!). I think if each of us attempted to emulate her, even in small ways, we could vastly improve the world.
February 19, 2016
Incredible collection of discussions between the author and Dorothy Day. Had never heard of her before but am thoroughly taken with her after finishing this little gem.
September 27, 2020
A thoughtful and penetrating portrait of a lay Catholic woman who chose to practice what the Church was preaching, a decidedly challenging way to live one's life. Robert Coles, who deeply admires his subject, nevertheless tells her story straight, doubts and all, and the result is a far richer and more nuanced appreciation of Dorothy Day than even her own excellent autobiography, "The Long Loneliness," provides. This book helped me to understand why Pope Francis singled her out in his address to Congress as one of four great Americans, along with Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Thomas Merton.
November 30, 2020
Dorothy Day is a complete delight. She is such a moving and profound figure, and I caught myself tearing up frequently while listening. This book’s strength comes in its conversational tone. Robert Cole, as a psychoanalyst, serves as an interesting interviewer of Day is her final years. He is the modernist who is trying hard to understand a woman who’s convictions are ancient. I think the book would have suffered if it had been written purely as biography, rather than conversation between the author and Day. You can really get a feel for her grace and fire, in a way that a tradition biography would not provide.
June 10, 2020
A decent little book; probably not the ideal place to start if you want to learn about Dorothy Day, but a worthwhile read.
Coles, a psychologist by profession, approaches his interviews with Day from a psychological framework, something Day frequently evades or more rarely, refutes. Coles, to his credit, freely acknowledges this and has the humility to recognize that Day transcends his framing, and yet, it does limit the book somewhat.
That being said, I did appreciate the discussion of Day's thoughts on Orwell, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, and knowing that she loved Middlemarch.
Coles, a psychologist by profession, approaches his interviews with Day from a psychological framework, something Day frequently evades or more rarely, refutes. Coles, to his credit, freely acknowledges this and has the humility to recognize that Day transcends his framing, and yet, it does limit the book somewhat.
That being said, I did appreciate the discussion of Day's thoughts on Orwell, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, and knowing that she loved Middlemarch.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews