Post Three
Another worthy business offering old Catholic books (as well as sometimes reprinting them) is Preserving Christian Publications: https://www.pcpbooks.net/prestashop/
Novel: Superstition Corner by Sheila Kaye-Smith (Chicago: Regnery, 1934, hc). This is a Catholic Family Book Club edition and so likely printed in 1950s or 60s. Kaye-Smith, an English convert, died in 1956. Set in 1588 England at the time of the Spanish Armada and Elizabethan persecution of Catholics. Cluny has reprinted some of her books though not, that I can see, this one. Purchased from Birchbark Bookshop in Parishville, NY (not to be confused with the store run by Louise Erdrich in MN): https://www.facebook.com/p/Birchbark-Bookshop-100063816092887/ On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Superstition-Corner-Sheila-Kaye-Smith/dp/B000O5YO4E/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1GFZESD2VVY2U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.yt0N5YvJtpHlI6bufiWubg.GuVAx8y5bqDp7-cyf829xhRW_XYeJVo542E56Sx_YXk&dib_tag=se&keywords=sheila+kaye-smith+superstition+corner&qid=1712696897&s=books&sprefix=sheila+kaye-smith+superstition+corner%2Cstripbooks%2C100&sr=1-1 There is a 2006 reprint by Neumann Press: https://www.amazon.com/Superstition-Corner-Sheila-Kaye-Smith/dp/091184516X
Catholic Viewpoint on Censorship by Harold Gardiner, SJ (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1958, hc). 1957 Cdl. Spellman imprimatur. Pertinent to today when the main outcry is against stifling Catholic voices, not about decency. There a number of books in this series. We have one on education though it is somewhere on the shelves at the moment. Sobering insights into pre-conciliar stances on fundamental social issues. Library discard. On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Viewpoint-Censorship-Harold-Gardiner/dp/B000O6GHKW
God Goes to Murderer’s Row by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1951, hc). 1951 imprimatur. From an estate my wife and I liquidated in 2021-22. Author wrote a number of books but is obscure today. Theologically rich but also emotionally compelling. This book bolsters criticisms of Pope Francis’ attempted change to Catholic position on the death penalty, because it shows a condemned man undergoing a profound conversion. On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/God-goes-murderers-row-Raymond/dp/B0006ASV6Y
BTW: A plague on folks who for some unknown reason re-print out-of-print books. Their listings clutter up Amazon and make it hard sometimes to know exactly what the book is and looks like, especially when they cut and paste boilerplate filler into the listing about the historical and cultural value of the book. At the risk of sounding proud I will say these same people seemingly know little or nothing about the book business and certainly don’t show much love for real books. Also, I am trying not to seem a shill for Amazon but…they are THE big dog. I include links just so people can see and get an idea on what prices are like. And a curse on those unscrupulous “booksellers” who try to corner the market and put scarce books out there for ridiculous prices. Yes. Free market and all that, but they really distort the market.
It Is Paul Who Writes by Knox-Cox (Ronald and Ronald) (NY: Sheed & Ward, 1956, hc). 1956 imprimatur. The Pauline writings in Ronald Knox’s translation on one page and commentary by scholar-priest Ronald Cox on the facing page. Ven. Fulton Sheen liked the Knox translation. I am not overly enamored of it. In this I am in good company: J.R.R. Tolkien, who knew Knox, did not think highly of it. See Holly Ordway’s Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography (Elk Grove Village, IL: Word On Fire, 2023), especially pp. 289-90. For good measure, see my review at Catholic Exchange on Feb. 12, 2024. Evelyn Waugh was also critical of the Knox translation. The merit of sometimes reading the Knox scripture version is shedding new light on passages that may have become too familiar. On ABE: https://www.abebooks.com/Paul-Who-Writes-Based-Translation-Epistles/31118914916/bd
Etc.: I did not include Rahner’s Theological Investigations Volume VIII (N.Y.: Herder and Herder, 1971, hc, 1971 imprimatur) in post 2. As I look at it now, I can see that the contents are all pieces published in the ‘50s and ‘60s. It ends with an essay on “The Future of the Religious Book.” Rahner apparently believes—as a good modernist—that people are mainly interested in the niche they and the system have appointed them, a symptom of the post-conciliar flight from tradition and the pernicious post-modern tendency to fixate on identity. “Of course even in the future religious books will still differ greatly [he wrote this in 1965] among themselves, and this does not merely apply to their subject matter. It applies to the readers too, for even in the future these will be extremely varied in respect of age, sex, social milieu, experience of life; moreover, their particular needs will also be different, as also will be the questions which their particular historical situation makes them feel to be of special concern to them” (251). On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Theological-Investigations-Further-Theology-Spiritual/dp/B000V98XLI
Have you run across any good old Catholic books? Feel free to share.