from The Anglican Digest, Michaelmas 1998
THIS issue of "Hillspeaking" is
devoted to reminiscing about the 45th anniversary of the EPISCOPAL BOOK CLUB, founded in Nevada,
Missouri, in 1953 by The Rev. Howard Lane Foland (1908-1989), then
rector of All Saints' Church. The first two selections, for the autumn
and winter of that year, were Massey Shepherd's The Worship of the
Church and J. L. C. Dart's Grace and God's Plan of Salvation.
There have been 193 titles selected since those first two.
My personal involvement with the Book Club began six years later when Patient Wife and I and our two daughters were confirmed by The Right Rev. Charles J. Kinsolving III, Bishop of what was then known as the Diocese of New Mexico and West Texas. We had been instructed by The Rev. Reginald Thomas Milburn, then vicar of Christ Church, El Paso, now retired and living in Florida. He started us out on the right path by giving us a "subscription" to The Anglican Digest and a membership in the Episcopal Book Club as was his wont with all new confirmands.
TAD and the EBC membership followed us from El Paso to LaHabra, California, and thence to Riverside. We enjoyed both and were faithful readers of each new Book Club selection. EBC and TAD became a part of the fabric of our lives.
In 1971 when I was preparing to retire for the third time (I have always had trouble with retirements), Patient Wife and I agreed that we were much too young to sit on thefront porch of the house we had just bought in Grants Pass, Oregon, and watch the Rogue River wend its way to the ocean. In the late summer of '71 we drove east to ask Father Foland if he could use us as volunteers if we moved to Hillspeak.
He said he could and we did. We sold the house in Grants Pass (we never lived in it), packed up our worldly possessions and arrived in Eureka Springs on the 4th of July 1972. Thus began more than a passive relationship with EBC and TAD.
The first book I read for Father Foland was Aelred Squire's Asking the Fathers, which became the autumn selection for 1973. I very quickly learned that my approval of a book did not necessarily mean that it would become an EBC selection but that my thumbs down because a book was dull or pretentious or one that I just could not get into likely meant that it would not be selected.
By the time of my fourth "retirement" in 1994 (as the Resident Manager) I had read a goodly number of books for the Book Club and my judging of them--for good or ill--had some small bearing on whether or not they became EBC selections. Now, thirty-nine years after reading my first selection, I still sometimes have occasion to pass judgement. The present director of the
EPISCOPAL BOOK CLUB, Canon Barbee, follows the Founding Father's dictum that my approval does not necessarily mean a selection--but my thumbs down is most times a reason not to select the book.
My personal involvement with the Book Club began six years later when Patient Wife and I and our two daughters were confirmed by The Right Rev. Charles J. Kinsolving III, Bishop of what was then known as the Diocese of New Mexico and West Texas. We had been instructed by The Rev. Reginald Thomas Milburn, then vicar of Christ Church, El Paso, now retired and living in Florida. He started us out on the right path by giving us a "subscription" to The Anglican Digest and a membership in the Episcopal Book Club as was his wont with all new confirmands.
TAD and the EBC membership followed us from El Paso to LaHabra, California, and thence to Riverside. We enjoyed both and were faithful readers of each new Book Club selection. EBC and TAD became a part of the fabric of our lives.
In 1971 when I was preparing to retire for the third time (I have always had trouble with retirements), Patient Wife and I agreed that we were much too young to sit on thefront porch of the house we had just bought in Grants Pass, Oregon, and watch the Rogue River wend its way to the ocean. In the late summer of '71 we drove east to ask Father Foland if he could use us as volunteers if we moved to Hillspeak.
He said he could and we did. We sold the house in Grants Pass (we never lived in it), packed up our worldly possessions and arrived in Eureka Springs on the 4th of July 1972. Thus began more than a passive relationship with EBC and TAD.
The first book I read for Father Foland was Aelred Squire's Asking the Fathers, which became the autumn selection for 1973. I very quickly learned that my approval of a book did not necessarily mean that it would become an EBC selection but that my thumbs down because a book was dull or pretentious or one that I just could not get into likely meant that it would not be selected.
By the time of my fourth "retirement" in 1994 (as the Resident Manager) I had read a goodly number of books for the Book Club and my judging of them--for good or ill--had some small bearing on whether or not they became EBC selections. Now, thirty-nine years after reading my first selection, I still sometimes have occasion to pass judgement. The present director of the
EPISCOPAL BOOK CLUB, Canon Barbee, follows the Founding Father's dictum that my approval does not necessarily mean a selection--but my thumbs down is most times a reason not to select the book.
805 CR 102 - EUREKA SPRINGS AR 72632-9705
PHONE: 501-253-9701 FAX: 501-253-1277 E-MAIL: speak@speakinc.org
