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Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty: An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother
“An intimate, revealing and sometimes wrenching family memoir of the journalist and social advocate who is now being considered for canonization” (The New York Times), told with illuminating detail by her granddaughter.
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent Catholic, writer, social activist, and co-founder of a movement dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Her life has been documented through her own writings as well as the work of historians, theologians, and academics. What has been missing until now is a more personal account from the point of view of someone who knew her well. Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty is a frank and reflective, heartfelt and humorous portrayal written by her granddaughter, Kate Hennessy.
Dorothy Day, writes Hennessy, is an unusual candidate for sainthood. Before her conversion, she lived what she called a “disorderly life,” during which she had an abortion and then gave birth to a child out of wedlock. After her conversion, she was both an obedient servant and a rigorous challenger of the Church. She was a prolific writer whose books are still in print and widely read. Although compassionate, Hennessy shows Day to be driven, dogmatic, loving, as well as judgmental, in particular with her only daughter, Tamar. She was also full of humor and laughter and could light up any room she entered.
An undisputed radical heroine, called “a saint for the occupy era” by The New Yorker, Day’s story unfolds against a backdrop of New York City from the 1910s to the 1980s and world events spanning from World War I to Vietnam. This thoroughly researched and intimate biography provides a valuable and nuanced portrait of an undersung and provocative American woman. “Frankly,” says actor and activist Martin Sheen, “it is a must-read.”
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent Catholic, writer, social activist, and co-founder of a movement dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Her life has been documented through her own writings as well as the work of historians, theologians, and academics. What has been missing until now is a more personal account from the point of view of someone who knew her well. Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty is a frank and reflective, heartfelt and humorous portrayal written by her granddaughter, Kate Hennessy.
Dorothy Day, writes Hennessy, is an unusual candidate for sainthood. Before her conversion, she lived what she called a “disorderly life,” during which she had an abortion and then gave birth to a child out of wedlock. After her conversion, she was both an obedient servant and a rigorous challenger of the Church. She was a prolific writer whose books are still in print and widely read. Although compassionate, Hennessy shows Day to be driven, dogmatic, loving, as well as judgmental, in particular with her only daughter, Tamar. She was also full of humor and laughter and could light up any room she entered.
An undisputed radical heroine, called “a saint for the occupy era” by The New Yorker, Day’s story unfolds against a backdrop of New York City from the 1910s to the 1980s and world events spanning from World War I to Vietnam. This thoroughly researched and intimate biography provides a valuable and nuanced portrait of an undersung and provocative American woman. “Frankly,” says actor and activist Martin Sheen, “it is a must-read.”
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 2017
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June 7, 2017
Even though I’m an Orthodox Jew, I have a deep connection to Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker movement. I volunteered at one of her “hospitality centers” a/k/a homeless shelters when I was in high school, and it was there that I was given the name of the man who would eventually become my first rabbi, Reb Shlomo Carlebach. I was also offered the chance to live there as a volunteer, but I did the conventional thing and went to college instead. What a mistake! I might have lived the life of spirituality and service I’d been searching for right away. Instead, I didn’t follow up with Reb Shlomo for another three years, and I never gave the Catholic Worker itself a second thought until very recently. Dorothy Day has been getting more notice lately. She was the subject of one chapter in David Brooks’ The Road to Character, and the Pope mentioned her in his address to Congress in 2015. Only then did I realize that the offer I’d received back then was part of a greater historic tradition of service. I’ve been both flattered and curious ever since. But to add something beyond my own personal interest, many say that the Pope’s public mention of her is an indication that she’s under consideration for canonization.
Because of all that, I went into this biography expecting to read about a saint, but this book is anything but hagiographic. The author is Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, and she doesn’t shy away from showing her grandmother’s feet of clay. Dorothy’s own daughter, the author’s mother, had a rather harsh life as a result of her mother’s conversion. As a child, she had to share her with the many needy people who came through the Catholic Worker. Then she followed the Catholic prescriptions of marrying young and having lots of kids. She also followed the back-to-the-land prescriptions of Peter Maurin, the movement’s co-founder. While farming may seem romantic to urbanites like Dorothy and me, it’s much harder to actually live it, and this book shows how poorly the farms fared over the years. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but I ended up admiring Tamar (the daughter) much more than Dorothy. It was my impression that Dorothy admired her more, too.
Before I read this book, I identified with Dorothy Day because had a bohemian youth and became religious, and I hoped the book would teach me how to incorporate left-wing values into religious practice. But what I discovered from the book was a different parallel to my life: the pitfalls of religious child-rearing. There’s nobody more gung-ho than a convert or baal teshuva, but in attempting to give over our values to our kids, we often end up causing them to resent those very same values. And yet, both Tamar and Kate (the author) love Dorothy and the Catholic Worker. So I can only conclude that religion is a complex matter. It appeals to the best side of us, but often, we and the others around us don’t measure up. What’s to be done about it? Be like Peter Maurin. Show your fellows forgiveness and patience. Everybody has a yetzer hara, even saints.
Because of all that, I went into this biography expecting to read about a saint, but this book is anything but hagiographic. The author is Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, and she doesn’t shy away from showing her grandmother’s feet of clay. Dorothy’s own daughter, the author’s mother, had a rather harsh life as a result of her mother’s conversion. As a child, she had to share her with the many needy people who came through the Catholic Worker. Then she followed the Catholic prescriptions of marrying young and having lots of kids. She also followed the back-to-the-land prescriptions of Peter Maurin, the movement’s co-founder. While farming may seem romantic to urbanites like Dorothy and me, it’s much harder to actually live it, and this book shows how poorly the farms fared over the years. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but I ended up admiring Tamar (the daughter) much more than Dorothy. It was my impression that Dorothy admired her more, too.
Before I read this book, I identified with Dorothy Day because had a bohemian youth and became religious, and I hoped the book would teach me how to incorporate left-wing values into religious practice. But what I discovered from the book was a different parallel to my life: the pitfalls of religious child-rearing. There’s nobody more gung-ho than a convert or baal teshuva, but in attempting to give over our values to our kids, we often end up causing them to resent those very same values. And yet, both Tamar and Kate (the author) love Dorothy and the Catholic Worker. So I can only conclude that religion is a complex matter. It appeals to the best side of us, but often, we and the others around us don’t measure up. What’s to be done about it? Be like Peter Maurin. Show your fellows forgiveness and patience. Everybody has a yetzer hara, even saints.
February 6, 2017
Dorothy Day is an interesting historical figure, the woman that founded The Catholic Worker, which was initially a combined newspaper, homeless shelter, and soup kitchen. I once subscribed to The Catholic Worker, and since it cost one penny per issue, you couldn’t beat the price. I saw this biography available and snapped it up from Net Galley; thanks go to them and Scribner, who provided me with a DRC in exchange for an honest review. This title was published in late January and is now available for purchase.
I always had a difficult time getting a handle on what The Catholic Worker stood for. The name suggests radicalism, and indeed, Day was red-baited during the McCarthy era. Day was a Catholic convert and a strong believer in sharing everything that she had with those that had nothing. She worked tirelessly and selflessly, and despite often living an impoverished existence somehow made it into her eighties before she died, an iconic crusader who became prominent when almost no women did so independently—though she was no feminist, and believed that wives should submit to husbands. Since her demise, speculation has arisen as to whether she might be canonized.
What was that huge crash? Was it a marble statue being knocked the hell off its pedestal? Hennessy takes on the life and deeds of her famous grandmother with both frankness and affection. In the end, I came away liking Day a good deal less than I had when I knew little about her. Her tireless effort on behalf of the poor included anything and everything her very young daughter had in this world, and at one point she remarked that she felt unable to ask others to embrace a life of poverty if her child wasn’t also a part of that. It was a different time, one with no Children’s Protective Service to come swooping down and note that the child was sleeping in an unheated building in the midst of frigid winter; that there was no running water, since the building was a squat; that the only food that day was a single bowl of thin soup and perhaps a little hard bread donated from the day-old stores of local bakeries; that even small, personal treasures and clothing given the child by other relatives and friends would either be stolen by homeless denizens or even given away by her mother, a woman with the maternal instincts of an alley cat. Day did a lot of good for a lot of people, and no one can say she did it for her own material well being, but she more or less ruined her daughter’s life, and even when grown, Tamar’s painful social anxiety and panic attacks derailed her efforts to build a normal life for herself.
Nevertheless, the immense contribution that Day made at a time when the only homeless shelters were ones with a lot of rules and sometimes religious requirements cannot be overlooked. She is said to have had a commanding presence, endless energy (and the mood swings that accompany such energy in some people), and a mesmerizing speaking voice. Day’s physician also treated the great Cesar Chavez, and reflected that their personalities were a lot alike.
I confess I was frustrated in reading this memoir, because I really just wanted the ideas behind the Catholic Worker laid out for me along with the organizational structure. Was the whole thing just whatever Day said it was at the moment, or was there democratic decision making? I never really found out, although I gained a sense that the chaotic events shown in the memoir reflected an unarticulated organizational chaos as well. This is a thing that sometimes happens with religious organizations; the material underpinnings are tossed up in the air for supernatural intervention, and the next thing they know, there’s an ugly letter from the IRS.
Only about half of this memoir was actually about Day; my sense was that the author did a lot of genealogical research and then decided to publish the result. The first twenty percent of the book is not only about Day’s various romantic entanglements; a significant portion of the text is mini-biographies of those men, and frankly, I wasn’t interested in them. I wanted to know about Day. Later I would be frustrated when long passages would be devoted to other relatives and their lives. Inclusion of daughter Tamar was essential, because Dorothy and Tamar were very close all their lives and shared a lot, and so in some ways to write about one was to tell about the other. But I didn’t need to know about Day’s in-laws, her many and several grandchildren, and so on. I just wanted to cut to the chase, but given the nature of the topic, also didn’t want to read Day’s own writing, which has a religious bias that doesn’t interest me.
Those with a keen interest in Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker may want to read this, because not many books are available that discuss her life and work. On the other hand, I don’t advise paying full cover price. Get it free or at a deep discount, unless you are possessed of insatiable curiosity and deep pockets.
I always had a difficult time getting a handle on what The Catholic Worker stood for. The name suggests radicalism, and indeed, Day was red-baited during the McCarthy era. Day was a Catholic convert and a strong believer in sharing everything that she had with those that had nothing. She worked tirelessly and selflessly, and despite often living an impoverished existence somehow made it into her eighties before she died, an iconic crusader who became prominent when almost no women did so independently—though she was no feminist, and believed that wives should submit to husbands. Since her demise, speculation has arisen as to whether she might be canonized.
What was that huge crash? Was it a marble statue being knocked the hell off its pedestal? Hennessy takes on the life and deeds of her famous grandmother with both frankness and affection. In the end, I came away liking Day a good deal less than I had when I knew little about her. Her tireless effort on behalf of the poor included anything and everything her very young daughter had in this world, and at one point she remarked that she felt unable to ask others to embrace a life of poverty if her child wasn’t also a part of that. It was a different time, one with no Children’s Protective Service to come swooping down and note that the child was sleeping in an unheated building in the midst of frigid winter; that there was no running water, since the building was a squat; that the only food that day was a single bowl of thin soup and perhaps a little hard bread donated from the day-old stores of local bakeries; that even small, personal treasures and clothing given the child by other relatives and friends would either be stolen by homeless denizens or even given away by her mother, a woman with the maternal instincts of an alley cat. Day did a lot of good for a lot of people, and no one can say she did it for her own material well being, but she more or less ruined her daughter’s life, and even when grown, Tamar’s painful social anxiety and panic attacks derailed her efforts to build a normal life for herself.
Nevertheless, the immense contribution that Day made at a time when the only homeless shelters were ones with a lot of rules and sometimes religious requirements cannot be overlooked. She is said to have had a commanding presence, endless energy (and the mood swings that accompany such energy in some people), and a mesmerizing speaking voice. Day’s physician also treated the great Cesar Chavez, and reflected that their personalities were a lot alike.
I confess I was frustrated in reading this memoir, because I really just wanted the ideas behind the Catholic Worker laid out for me along with the organizational structure. Was the whole thing just whatever Day said it was at the moment, or was there democratic decision making? I never really found out, although I gained a sense that the chaotic events shown in the memoir reflected an unarticulated organizational chaos as well. This is a thing that sometimes happens with religious organizations; the material underpinnings are tossed up in the air for supernatural intervention, and the next thing they know, there’s an ugly letter from the IRS.
Only about half of this memoir was actually about Day; my sense was that the author did a lot of genealogical research and then decided to publish the result. The first twenty percent of the book is not only about Day’s various romantic entanglements; a significant portion of the text is mini-biographies of those men, and frankly, I wasn’t interested in them. I wanted to know about Day. Later I would be frustrated when long passages would be devoted to other relatives and their lives. Inclusion of daughter Tamar was essential, because Dorothy and Tamar were very close all their lives and shared a lot, and so in some ways to write about one was to tell about the other. But I didn’t need to know about Day’s in-laws, her many and several grandchildren, and so on. I just wanted to cut to the chase, but given the nature of the topic, also didn’t want to read Day’s own writing, which has a religious bias that doesn’t interest me.
Those with a keen interest in Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker may want to read this, because not many books are available that discuss her life and work. On the other hand, I don’t advise paying full cover price. Get it free or at a deep discount, unless you are possessed of insatiable curiosity and deep pockets.
October 12, 2017
This is an insider biography of Dorothy Day, a relational memoir of the mother-daughter relationship between the activist Day and her only living child, Tamar. Kate Hennessey, Day’s youngest granddaughter, explores the legacy of Day, not as the 20th century prophet, the social activist, the prolific writer who gave life to numerous communities of radical Gospel hospitality, simplicity and prayer, but as the single mother of a daughter who she never understood and often left feeling neglected, betrayed and diminished. Day is one of my personal heroes. I often wondered about her daughter, growing up in the shadow of such a formidable, uncompromising figure, in the midst of the chaos of the nascent Catholic Worker. This book gave me a very different picture of Day: flawed, domineering, able to be sensitive to the needs of broken strangers but dismissive of the needs of her own child, yet loved and loving despite that. This was a 4 star read for me because I was very interested in the central figures. Without that extreme interest, I think this would be a 3 star read.
February 7, 2017
A dreary book. The writing is dry and often stilted. Stories come across like a soda gone flat -- I can imagine they would have been more interesting had the writing been better.
The author is, perhaps, too close to her subject to give a good account. To my taste, she spends waaaay too much time discussing her mother (Day's daughter) and father, not to mention her own life.
I appreciate getting a perspective of Day that is human, not hagiographical, but I have rarely read a more tedious book.
The author is, perhaps, too close to her subject to give a good account. To my taste, she spends waaaay too much time discussing her mother (Day's daughter) and father, not to mention her own life.
I appreciate getting a perspective of Day that is human, not hagiographical, but I have rarely read a more tedious book.
April 14, 2017
In addition to this being a biography of Dorothy Day, it is also a story of a woman coming to terms with her family history. I think the story could have been better organized and more tightly told, but nevertheless it is a story worth entering into. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.
November 10, 2017
This biography of Dorothy Day was written by her youngest granddaughter, and I think it is as much a biography of Day's daughter, Tamar, as it is of the famous mother.
Dorothy Day was an American icon, foundress of the Catholic Worker movement (and newspaper) which opened houses of hospitality during the Great Depression, taking in all the poor and unwanted, feeding them, providing them shelter, and taking care of them as far was possible. She was a pacifist, arrested in various marches and for refusing to participate in a duck-and-cover drill during the Cold War.
This book covers her personal life. I had read some of Day's writings before, but you get a different picture of a person when looking at her from the outside. Young Dorothy rubbed elbows with the literary elite of her time: Eugene O'Neill was a good friend. She subscribed to personal and sexual freedom until she was caught by that old Hound of Heaven. There is a cause open for her canonization. If it finally happens, she will be the first saint we know of who had an abortion.
Once she had her daughter, Tamar (born out of wedlock), she decided to have Tamar baptized and she herself did a little later and she joined the Church. Her lover couldn't fathom this. They remained in love until death but he would not marry her. She never loved anyone else so she never married. He did find another woman to love, and in a mark of her holiness, Day nursed his lover through her (Nanette was her name) final illness.
It's hard to be the daughter of a living saint, though. This book is as much Tamar's story and what her mother's choices meant to her and how she reflected them in her own choices.
Dorothy day was fiercely intelligent, judgmental, and a modern St. Francis of Assisi, trying to truly live Gospel values.
Dorothy Day was an American icon, foundress of the Catholic Worker movement (and newspaper) which opened houses of hospitality during the Great Depression, taking in all the poor and unwanted, feeding them, providing them shelter, and taking care of them as far was possible. She was a pacifist, arrested in various marches and for refusing to participate in a duck-and-cover drill during the Cold War.
This book covers her personal life. I had read some of Day's writings before, but you get a different picture of a person when looking at her from the outside. Young Dorothy rubbed elbows with the literary elite of her time: Eugene O'Neill was a good friend. She subscribed to personal and sexual freedom until she was caught by that old Hound of Heaven. There is a cause open for her canonization. If it finally happens, she will be the first saint we know of who had an abortion.
Once she had her daughter, Tamar (born out of wedlock), she decided to have Tamar baptized and she herself did a little later and she joined the Church. Her lover couldn't fathom this. They remained in love until death but he would not marry her. She never loved anyone else so she never married. He did find another woman to love, and in a mark of her holiness, Day nursed his lover through her (Nanette was her name) final illness.
It's hard to be the daughter of a living saint, though. This book is as much Tamar's story and what her mother's choices meant to her and how she reflected them in her own choices.
Dorothy day was fiercely intelligent, judgmental, and a modern St. Francis of Assisi, trying to truly live Gospel values.
December 22, 2017
Slow start, and not exactly what it appears to be. It is much more an author trying to come to terms with and understand her grandmother, mother, and herself. It's not as much a biography of Day as it is an attempt to understand the generations of women in their family. Still, a good read and interesting as I didn't know much about the Catholic Workers Movement.
October 6, 2016
I’ve always admired Dorothy Day, not just for founding the Catholic Worker movement, but also for her imperfections. She seems to me so human. Kate Hennessy, her granddaughter, has written an intimate portrait of her grandmother.
(Note: I received pre-publication access through Edelweiss.)
(Note: I received pre-publication access through Edelweiss.)
December 23, 2025
2nd read, edited review: this book is still beautiful and heart wrenching, but at times so challenging to read. If it wasn’t about a woman who is considered a saint, I don’t think I’d feel so challenged, but since it is, I question some of the motives of the author. She’s essentially telling a story in which her grandmother was a force of a woman, but not a saint… which is fine, and her prerogative, and as I said, truly heart wrenching as it lays bare the realities of complicated mother daughter relationships. But it is possible that, clouded by her own feelings about the Catholic Church in general, she did her grandmother an injustice? Not by telling her story, but by omitting any details about Dorothy’s interior life? Now I (still) don’t actually know anything else about Dorothy from other sources - this is my only picture of her - and having read many a saint biography, she does not in any way fit the picture I have of a saint. So either the author doesn’t know, or doesn’t want to tell, or every other saint book I’ve read has been misleading in what makes a saint, or Dorothy wasn’t one… those feel like the only options…
I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this book. I don’t even remember from whence I got the recommendation and bought it on a whim, though it was weeks or maybe months ago. I had only heard of Dorothy Day in passing and had never heard of the Catholic Worker. This is a beautiful, at times heartbreaking, love story - Tamar’s Love for Dorothy, Dorothy’s Love for the Church, and Kate’s Love for them both. It was a fascinating look at a life lived big, a woman who spoke and acted on her beliefs right to the end. I didn’t love every minute of it and sometimes felt wounded along the way, but I know I’ll carry this book with me and not soon forget it.
I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this book. I don’t even remember from whence I got the recommendation and bought it on a whim, though it was weeks or maybe months ago. I had only heard of Dorothy Day in passing and had never heard of the Catholic Worker. This is a beautiful, at times heartbreaking, love story - Tamar’s Love for Dorothy, Dorothy’s Love for the Church, and Kate’s Love for them both. It was a fascinating look at a life lived big, a woman who spoke and acted on her beliefs right to the end. I didn’t love every minute of it and sometimes felt wounded along the way, but I know I’ll carry this book with me and not soon forget it.
February 9, 2017
Dorothy Day is a fascinating person, and her story was very different than I would have guessed from the vague cultural sense I've picked up about the Catholic Worker movement. This book is written by her granddaughter, so it's a more personal version and focuses on Dorothy's difficult relationship with her only child Tamar. (Imagine growing up in a series of poverty-and politics-infused Catholic Worker houses and farmsteads with a mother many would call a Saint.)
It was interesting to read now because it reminds you that this country has had a series of cultural revolutions like the one we're in. The Catholic Worker movement developed among the suffrage movement, Great Depression worker strikes, and anti-war activists of the first half of the 21st century, and this book shows how human, divisive, and often violent each of those fights were.
I hear it paints a different picture of Dorothy Day than her own book The Long Loneliness or others written about her and her movement. The title, The World Will Be Saved By Beauty, is a paraphrase of a Goethe quote and one I'll take forward with me. Though I do not see much beauty in most of the stories of the Catholic Worker, the love and respect afforded to all the downtrodden and despairing in those houses is beautiful. And the small touches, like Tamar planting rose bushes alongside the poor crops they lived off of, glow.
More and more, I think beauty is an essential need. One small kindness or one small thing can save you, at least until tomorrow.
It was interesting to read now because it reminds you that this country has had a series of cultural revolutions like the one we're in. The Catholic Worker movement developed among the suffrage movement, Great Depression worker strikes, and anti-war activists of the first half of the 21st century, and this book shows how human, divisive, and often violent each of those fights were.
I hear it paints a different picture of Dorothy Day than her own book The Long Loneliness or others written about her and her movement. The title, The World Will Be Saved By Beauty, is a paraphrase of a Goethe quote and one I'll take forward with me. Though I do not see much beauty in most of the stories of the Catholic Worker, the love and respect afforded to all the downtrodden and despairing in those houses is beautiful. And the small touches, like Tamar planting rose bushes alongside the poor crops they lived off of, glow.
More and more, I think beauty is an essential need. One small kindness or one small thing can save you, at least until tomorrow.
September 9, 2018
Unfortunately the lack of organization, confusing flow of the book made for a tedious read at times. However, the personal and intimate details and anecdotes added to the charm of this method of telling Dorothy’s story. Perhaps if she had more structure and consistency, I would have enjoyed it more.
August 29, 2020
In the interest of full disclosure, I mention that I am the son of a couple depicted in this book, who first were followers of Dorothy Day but later part of the group that broke away from her Catholic Worker movement. My parents did then continue to live on a back-to-the-land farm community generally based on CW principles. Thus, as one of a family of ten children, Dorothy Day’s story and work was a background component very much a part of our upbringing.
But this review is not about my story, but an appreciation of a personal, honest and artfully written memoir about a complex and heroic American social pioneer, Dorothy Day; her only daughter, the equally complex but more reserved Tamar; and finally her granddaughter, Kate, the author and youngest of nine, who speaks little about herself although her sensitive nature shines through in each intense memory of her grandmother and mother that she chooses to depict.
That Dorothy Day is currently a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church—and is as deserving of emulation as any in that category—is an issue Kate eases past in the book, a tact I appreciate as I believe such a title would put the humanity her granddaughter so skillfully depicts on a pedestal beyond the reach of the many, myself included, for whom sainthood might mean little but Dorothy’s example might mean so much.
Although I am about ten years older than Kate with the “divorce” between the Catholic Worker (including Dorothy, Tamar and her children) and the community in which I was raised occurring around the time of my birth (detailed in Chapter 11), I remembered, from a child’s viewpoint, of course, many of the people, places, and ideas in the book. And reading Kate’s detailed descriptions brought back unexpected memories, from its deeply painful aspects to the buried pleasures of growing up in a rugged back-to-the-land manner of living that few modern Americans have experienced. While I would not advocate such a lifestyle wholesale, Kate’s depiction of it reminded me that something akin to it could serve, even in memory, as a spiritual retreat like Henry David Thoreau’s sojourn at Walden Pond. I believe that even those who have never experienced anything like Kate’s or my upbringing will taste a certain nostalgia for the simpler life from her book.
Along with considerable drama and humor: since the author was from a family of nine (as one of ten myself it really resonated), the story of Tamar’s tribe transplanted to a habitat separated from its peers, made Kate’s description of sibling interaction uncommon but endearing. Mix in a multitude of goats, horses, cows, dogs, clunky cars, and really bad-tasting food, and parts of the book are right out of Dickens—only it ain’t fiction, as I can attest.
Religion, obviously, is part of the mix; Dorothy’s organization is called the Catholic Worker. That Dorothy’s way, as well as the one I was raised in, was “more Catholic than the Pope,” as the saying goes, has some truth to it; she did not spare the clergy when a tendency to luxury contradicted the Works of Mercy. Kate includes both sides of the religious conundrum (neither Tamar nor most of her children remained Catholic) but settles gently, as did Dorothy much of the time, on a preference for the perennial principles of true spirituality over a particular creed, the spirit over the letter of religion.
I got to the end of Kate Hennessey’s Dorothy Day with nary a taste of haughty hagiography in my mouth, for which I am grateful. Instead, I found it a good, beautiful, and true presentation of a visionary grandmother and her devoted daughter as told by a talented and affectionate granddaughter, all three of whom were convinced, as the subtitle states, that even if all hell seems to be breaking loose, “the world will be saved by beauty.”
But this review is not about my story, but an appreciation of a personal, honest and artfully written memoir about a complex and heroic American social pioneer, Dorothy Day; her only daughter, the equally complex but more reserved Tamar; and finally her granddaughter, Kate, the author and youngest of nine, who speaks little about herself although her sensitive nature shines through in each intense memory of her grandmother and mother that she chooses to depict.
That Dorothy Day is currently a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church—and is as deserving of emulation as any in that category—is an issue Kate eases past in the book, a tact I appreciate as I believe such a title would put the humanity her granddaughter so skillfully depicts on a pedestal beyond the reach of the many, myself included, for whom sainthood might mean little but Dorothy’s example might mean so much.
Although I am about ten years older than Kate with the “divorce” between the Catholic Worker (including Dorothy, Tamar and her children) and the community in which I was raised occurring around the time of my birth (detailed in Chapter 11), I remembered, from a child’s viewpoint, of course, many of the people, places, and ideas in the book. And reading Kate’s detailed descriptions brought back unexpected memories, from its deeply painful aspects to the buried pleasures of growing up in a rugged back-to-the-land manner of living that few modern Americans have experienced. While I would not advocate such a lifestyle wholesale, Kate’s depiction of it reminded me that something akin to it could serve, even in memory, as a spiritual retreat like Henry David Thoreau’s sojourn at Walden Pond. I believe that even those who have never experienced anything like Kate’s or my upbringing will taste a certain nostalgia for the simpler life from her book.
Along with considerable drama and humor: since the author was from a family of nine (as one of ten myself it really resonated), the story of Tamar’s tribe transplanted to a habitat separated from its peers, made Kate’s description of sibling interaction uncommon but endearing. Mix in a multitude of goats, horses, cows, dogs, clunky cars, and really bad-tasting food, and parts of the book are right out of Dickens—only it ain’t fiction, as I can attest.
Religion, obviously, is part of the mix; Dorothy’s organization is called the Catholic Worker. That Dorothy’s way, as well as the one I was raised in, was “more Catholic than the Pope,” as the saying goes, has some truth to it; she did not spare the clergy when a tendency to luxury contradicted the Works of Mercy. Kate includes both sides of the religious conundrum (neither Tamar nor most of her children remained Catholic) but settles gently, as did Dorothy much of the time, on a preference for the perennial principles of true spirituality over a particular creed, the spirit over the letter of religion.
I got to the end of Kate Hennessey’s Dorothy Day with nary a taste of haughty hagiography in my mouth, for which I am grateful. Instead, I found it a good, beautiful, and true presentation of a visionary grandmother and her devoted daughter as told by a talented and affectionate granddaughter, all three of whom were convinced, as the subtitle states, that even if all hell seems to be breaking loose, “the world will be saved by beauty.”
November 17, 2025
I picked this book up out of curiosity about the Catholic Worker in general and Dorothy Day in particular. This is not the book to satisfy that curiosity. If that is what you are looking for, look elsewhere. Once I realized I was not reading the book I thought I was, I thoroughly enjoyed the book I unexpectedly found myself in the middle of. Kate Hennessy is Dorothy Day's granddaughter and has written a poignant family saga. Many saints are less heroic at home and Dorothy Day does not escape that cliche. However, Hennessy is writing from a place of such deep compassion and understanding, the book still reads as a love letter to an amazing woman - even while sharing the struggles of being related to someone so revered.
July 28, 2017
Dorothy Day seems to have fallen into her future fame and success accidentally. After what she called a "disorderly" life lived in Bohemian New York, where she knew Eugene O'Neill and many others of stature, Day moved about the country as a journalist until she returned to New York and started the newspaper Catholic Worker with a friend. Meant to replace other failed newspapers of similar philosophical leanings, the CW was an overnight sensation, bringing in funds undreamed of. But this success opened up Day to the pursuits she believed were the intent of the Christian faith--what she called hospitality and mercy. And so began the soup line at the CW offices, along with clothing donations and shelters for the homeless and the purchase of farms where the dispossessed could live and work.
In this biography, Day's youngest grandchild explores her grandmother's and mother's life from inside the world of birth family and CW family. Day undertook to live in voluntary poverty, and considered that a saving grace, allowing individuals to live in harmony with the needs of the world. Where others saw grinding poverty and suffering, she found the beauty of an open window letting in the voices of children playing in the street below, or the warmth of a smile from a stranger.
Day had only one child, Tamar, born out of wedlock when she and the girl's father couldn't come to an agreement about faith and marriage. Tamar gave birth to nine children, and over the years family relationships evolved and deepened, grievances appeared and sank away, only to reappear. Denied a college education because her mother insisted she knew all she needed, Tamar threw herself into an unsuitable marriage and a successful life as a creative parent, learning to spin, weave, knit, sew, plant and harvest, preserve, build and repair. Wherever she found herself, she could make the tools she needed for her work. Remarkable in her own right, Tamar is nudged into long conversations with her youngest child, Kate, the author of this book, to tell the story of her mother and her own upbringing.
The author takes us deeper into the world of Dorothy Day by talking about her own experiences trying to know and experience the family of the Catholic Worker, its Hospitality Houses and services. She doesn't hold back stories about the many stumbles and challenges, such as the times a CW member drove off with all the preserves meant to last the year, or pilfered money and furnishings.
Granddaughter Kate's biography is really the biography of an entire family living in a separate CW world. Day had a gift for opening her doors to everyone, and giving each one the opportunity to find what he or she could offer. The farms are brought to life by the tapping into newly discovered talents and gifts of strangers showing up to work. But there were plenty of failures as well, such as Father Hugo and his peculiar, to say the least, retreats and a priest who turned one farm into a cult that left its members on the verge of starving to death. And yet Day's vision continued to call others who wanted to be part of it.
By the end of the story I wondered at the many failures and missteps and grievances of the CW world, as well as the disparate paths taken by Tamar's children, which included mental illness, violence, cancer, and more. The legacy of 250 houses and farms of hospitality in the US and around the world is truly remarkable. But so is this biography, made possible by a daughter who was scrupulously honest and open, despite the pain, and a granddaughter of touching perspicacity and sensitivity in reconstructing the world of Dorothy Day.
Highly recommended.
In this biography, Day's youngest grandchild explores her grandmother's and mother's life from inside the world of birth family and CW family. Day undertook to live in voluntary poverty, and considered that a saving grace, allowing individuals to live in harmony with the needs of the world. Where others saw grinding poverty and suffering, she found the beauty of an open window letting in the voices of children playing in the street below, or the warmth of a smile from a stranger.
Day had only one child, Tamar, born out of wedlock when she and the girl's father couldn't come to an agreement about faith and marriage. Tamar gave birth to nine children, and over the years family relationships evolved and deepened, grievances appeared and sank away, only to reappear. Denied a college education because her mother insisted she knew all she needed, Tamar threw herself into an unsuitable marriage and a successful life as a creative parent, learning to spin, weave, knit, sew, plant and harvest, preserve, build and repair. Wherever she found herself, she could make the tools she needed for her work. Remarkable in her own right, Tamar is nudged into long conversations with her youngest child, Kate, the author of this book, to tell the story of her mother and her own upbringing.
The author takes us deeper into the world of Dorothy Day by talking about her own experiences trying to know and experience the family of the Catholic Worker, its Hospitality Houses and services. She doesn't hold back stories about the many stumbles and challenges, such as the times a CW member drove off with all the preserves meant to last the year, or pilfered money and furnishings.
Granddaughter Kate's biography is really the biography of an entire family living in a separate CW world. Day had a gift for opening her doors to everyone, and giving each one the opportunity to find what he or she could offer. The farms are brought to life by the tapping into newly discovered talents and gifts of strangers showing up to work. But there were plenty of failures as well, such as Father Hugo and his peculiar, to say the least, retreats and a priest who turned one farm into a cult that left its members on the verge of starving to death. And yet Day's vision continued to call others who wanted to be part of it.
By the end of the story I wondered at the many failures and missteps and grievances of the CW world, as well as the disparate paths taken by Tamar's children, which included mental illness, violence, cancer, and more. The legacy of 250 houses and farms of hospitality in the US and around the world is truly remarkable. But so is this biography, made possible by a daughter who was scrupulously honest and open, despite the pain, and a granddaughter of touching perspicacity and sensitivity in reconstructing the world of Dorothy Day.
Highly recommended.
December 27, 2017
I tore through this book.
Dorothy Day has long been a source of inspiration for me, despite my superficial and factually sporadic acquaintance with her life and work. I knew of her as the founder of the Catholic Worker and committed to living out the acts of mercy. My freshman year of college I read a single column of hers on assignment for a course with my favorite philosophy professor in which she referenced the idea of ‘round table discussions’: that they are so pleasant and edifying, and we should have more of them in a formal sense. This excerpted line led Matthew and I to invite our friends to join us in formal round table discussions which continued (with dubious formality) for the remainder of college, solidifying a group that was the backbone of my undergraduate experience. In those discussions we, with our wide-eyed (and some days, wild-eyed) idealism, explored Dorothy’s commitment to a new social order.
Reading Dorothy Day: the World Will Be Saved By Beauty reminded me of the first seeds which grew into my passion for an alternative social order, reading Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution in high school. C’mon, every millennial evangelical radical has to have read TIR; it can be credited with probably about 70% of recruits to Mission Year over the past decade, myself included. In his memoir-manifesto, Claiborne writes of chewing on the words of Day and the early successes of the CW movement; I remember these references along with a quote about dancing and confused visions of the time my life partner Maria and I spent the night in a co-op in Washington DC when we were on our contra dancing road trip.
Reading Dorothy Day revealed to me how much of the original CW program I already identify with. You know that strange moment of learning about something and realizing it’s been within you all the time? Hennessy reveals that the original program was houses of hospitality, agricultural communes and learning farms, and round table discussions for the edification of faith and clarification of thought. Throughout the book she follows the dramatic ups-and-downs of the back to the land movement which was fascinating, alternately inspiring, disheartening, consoling, and warning. Hennessy is a skilled and delicate narrator as she walks a line of personal involvement with ginger level-headedness, never allowing her personal stake in or proximity to the narrative to compromise her balanced and well-researched objectivity.
Throughout the book, I was amazed and impressed at how much first-hand information (quoted, character descriptions, anecdotes, and more) she had been able to compile and to re-present in a way that didn’t beleaguer or fragment the work.
The gem of this book is Hennessy’s skillful exploration of the relationships. From Dorothy Day’s early impassioned (and less impassioned) loves to her lifelong dependencies and tensions, Hennessy takes each intimate relationship and holds it up to the light like a rare and precious jewel, closely examining it for its unique details.
Given to me as a surprise Christmas gift by one of my best friends, this book was an unexpected treasure in many ways, one I already want to pass along to other friends for its insight and the challenge that it presents: reconciling our own lives with the incredible legacy and complexity of the wonder that was Dorothy Day.
Dorothy Day has long been a source of inspiration for me, despite my superficial and factually sporadic acquaintance with her life and work. I knew of her as the founder of the Catholic Worker and committed to living out the acts of mercy. My freshman year of college I read a single column of hers on assignment for a course with my favorite philosophy professor in which she referenced the idea of ‘round table discussions’: that they are so pleasant and edifying, and we should have more of them in a formal sense. This excerpted line led Matthew and I to invite our friends to join us in formal round table discussions which continued (with dubious formality) for the remainder of college, solidifying a group that was the backbone of my undergraduate experience. In those discussions we, with our wide-eyed (and some days, wild-eyed) idealism, explored Dorothy’s commitment to a new social order.
Reading Dorothy Day: the World Will Be Saved By Beauty reminded me of the first seeds which grew into my passion for an alternative social order, reading Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution in high school. C’mon, every millennial evangelical radical has to have read TIR; it can be credited with probably about 70% of recruits to Mission Year over the past decade, myself included. In his memoir-manifesto, Claiborne writes of chewing on the words of Day and the early successes of the CW movement; I remember these references along with a quote about dancing and confused visions of the time my life partner Maria and I spent the night in a co-op in Washington DC when we were on our contra dancing road trip.
Reading Dorothy Day revealed to me how much of the original CW program I already identify with. You know that strange moment of learning about something and realizing it’s been within you all the time? Hennessy reveals that the original program was houses of hospitality, agricultural communes and learning farms, and round table discussions for the edification of faith and clarification of thought. Throughout the book she follows the dramatic ups-and-downs of the back to the land movement which was fascinating, alternately inspiring, disheartening, consoling, and warning. Hennessy is a skilled and delicate narrator as she walks a line of personal involvement with ginger level-headedness, never allowing her personal stake in or proximity to the narrative to compromise her balanced and well-researched objectivity.
Throughout the book, I was amazed and impressed at how much first-hand information (quoted, character descriptions, anecdotes, and more) she had been able to compile and to re-present in a way that didn’t beleaguer or fragment the work.
The gem of this book is Hennessy’s skillful exploration of the relationships. From Dorothy Day’s early impassioned (and less impassioned) loves to her lifelong dependencies and tensions, Hennessy takes each intimate relationship and holds it up to the light like a rare and precious jewel, closely examining it for its unique details.
Given to me as a surprise Christmas gift by one of my best friends, this book was an unexpected treasure in many ways, one I already want to pass along to other friends for its insight and the challenge that it presents: reconciling our own lives with the incredible legacy and complexity of the wonder that was Dorothy Day.
December 14, 2017
The beginning of this book was slow and vague. I understand why the author wanted to include information about her grandmother's early life, but she was a couple of generations removed from it, and most of the information is already available elsewhere. Because there are no footnotes, we don't know where the author got the information and how accurate it it.
Once the story gets to the point where Tamar, the author's mother, is born, it gets a lot more interesting, probably because they author was able to supplement her research and reading with her mother's own memories.
Throughout the book, but especially at the end, there is discussion of how Day was able (or sometimes not) to weave her belief in supporting all of God's children and the difficulty of living with needy, mentally unstable and even dangerous people. This was very interesting, and the acknowledgement of the difficult made Day more real to me rather than a saintly figure. But if you do not like your heroes' faults exposed, do not read this book. It is not a "tell all" book - there is obviously a lot of love and respect between the author and her mother and grandmother. But there were also a lot of questionable decisions and mistakes in their lives. I would have loved to have read more about the lives of the other 8 children in Tamar's family, although that might have been crossing a privacy line with the author's siblings. It was such an interesting and non-conventional upbringing and obviously the kids had very different experiences depending on where they were in birth order. The author is the youngest of the nine, and thus her experiences were colored a certain way. Because she was the youngest, though, she likely knew more about her grandmother and mother than some of the others, if only because they had more time to spend with her.
Once the story gets to the point where Tamar, the author's mother, is born, it gets a lot more interesting, probably because they author was able to supplement her research and reading with her mother's own memories.
Throughout the book, but especially at the end, there is discussion of how Day was able (or sometimes not) to weave her belief in supporting all of God's children and the difficulty of living with needy, mentally unstable and even dangerous people. This was very interesting, and the acknowledgement of the difficult made Day more real to me rather than a saintly figure. But if you do not like your heroes' faults exposed, do not read this book. It is not a "tell all" book - there is obviously a lot of love and respect between the author and her mother and grandmother. But there were also a lot of questionable decisions and mistakes in their lives. I would have loved to have read more about the lives of the other 8 children in Tamar's family, although that might have been crossing a privacy line with the author's siblings. It was such an interesting and non-conventional upbringing and obviously the kids had very different experiences depending on where they were in birth order. The author is the youngest of the nine, and thus her experiences were colored a certain way. Because she was the youngest, though, she likely knew more about her grandmother and mother than some of the others, if only because they had more time to spend with her.
April 8, 2018
The Catholic Worker I knew in the the early 1980s ranged from crazy and unthinking to generous hospitality. I remember reading a pamphlet of Peter Maurin's Easy Essays, but I'm no longer sure all of what I've read by or about Dorothy Day: certainly some newspaper columns, and Loves and Fishes and probably the Long Loneliness and William Miller's biography. I know I attended an evening or two for clarification of thought at either Joseph or Mary House on the Lower East Side, and that at Day's memorial service at St. Patrick's I was improbably recruited to hand out programs. So perhaps I was drawn to Kate Hennessy's intimate portrait as a reconsideration of my own youthful experience. I was rewarded with something like the familiar sweetness of conversations with a friend trying to make sense out of her family and especially of her mother. Hennessy's book is as much about her mother Tamar as her grandmother Dorothy, and both portraits rendered with kindness and love.
June 25, 2018
Finished this wonderful book. Beautifully written. Not solely a biography of Dorothy. Because it is written by a family member, it gives you insight into the whole, messy extended family of Dorothy Day and the messiness of the Catholic Worker communities. Written with a generous heart, Kate Hennessy valiantly tries to let us know who the unknowable Dorothy Day was - and who Kate's mother, Tamar was. She kept trying over many years to get Tamar to share herself, but it was difficult. Nevertheless, she kept talking with her mother. And Kate did her homework, reading letters and diary entries. We learn so much about the family, and if there is much to be forgiven, it is forgiven. Lovely.
April 25, 2017
Eloquently written. Engaging. Excellent. And yet, having just finished it, a sense of sadness comes over me. I knew Dorothy Day only from her writing and her witness which shaped my life and my decisions. It was like seeing a beautiful piece of needlework, an intricate and inspiring view of the world and our call to love in the most tangible of ways. This book is the flip side of the stitching. We see the knots and the crossed threads. It was hard to read emotionally for that reason.
April 4, 2020
Too much emoting, not nearly enough detail of the later years of Dorothy’s life, and the author lost sight of her subject far too often as she gazed in repetitive navel-gazing and a lot of projection. It’s an interesting enough take on the early years of the Dorothy’s social activism but it deteriorates once the focus shifts to Dorothy’s daughter. This is really a vehicle for the author to work out her own issues.
November 11, 2016
Truly beautifully written filled with love and honesty, with a clarity that is rich and full with depth. There has been many fine books written by and about Dorothy Day, and this one is a true added treasure. I am sure Hennessy did not know when she wrote this, that it is a book that should be read now more then ever to remember beauty and love even though it maybe hard at times.
July 19, 2017
I never knew who Dorothy Day was and from what I read in this book she never seemed like a woman I wanted to know more about. The book was written by her granddaughter and it was totally disorganized and filled with too many random details. This seemed more like a private collection of remembrances for a family then a published book.
March 9, 2017
Beautifully written by Dorothy Day's granddaughter.
Want to read
March 24, 2017I'm adding to by list because of an NPR Fresh Air broadcast/interview I heard part of
May 15, 2017
Good, but less about DD and more about family, esp. daughter (it's written by granddaughter). Not any insight into the faith life or motivation of DD.
August 13, 2018
Kate Hennessy reminded me that people who are most beautiful and holy are also often the most complex. Her honest stories of her grandmother are frank, heartfelt and yet gentle.
February 26, 2021
A fascinating view into the private world of one of the more controversial figures in modern Catholicism; I enjoyed seeing Dorothy through her family’s eyes. It left me with many things to ponder about Dorothy, Christianity, and myself. It’s a unique way to view a possible Saint but I found it both compelling and educational. I highly recommend it.
July 2, 2020
I enjoyed learning about this amazing woman. In general tho I felt like the author wandered and repeated much of what she had already said.
August 9, 2024
Heartbreaking somehow. And yet it in no ways diminishes my appreciation for Dorothy’s life and witness. Her complexity is a great gift to me.
May 10, 2020
A bit disjointed, but a fascinating look at an incredible woman who lived through some remarkable times.
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