All Good Books Are Catholic Books: Print Culture, Censorship, and Modernity in Twentieth-Century America

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ALL GOOD BOOKS ARE CATHOLIC BOOKS volumes in this series CUSHWA CENTER STUDIES OF CATHOLICISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA edited by R. Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame Catholics in the American Century: Recasting Narratives of U.S. History edited by R. Scott Appleby and Kathleen Sprows Cummings On the IrishWaterfront:The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York by James T. Fisher Horizons of the Sacred: MexicanTraditions in U.S. Catholicism edited by Timothy Matovina and Gary Riebe-Estrella, SVD Habits of Devotion: Catholic Religious Practice inTwentieth-Century America edited by James M. O’Toole Ballots and Bibles: Ethnic Politics and the Catholic Church in Providence by Evelyn Savidge Sterne Catholics and Contraception:An American History by Leslie Woodcock Tentler Claiming the City: Politics, Faith, and the Power of Place in St. Paul by Mary Lethert Wingerd ALL GOOD BOOKS ARE CATHOLIC BOOKS PRINT CULTURE, CENSORSHIP, AND MODERNITY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA Una M. Cadegan CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2013 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cadegan, Una M., 1960– author. All good books are Catholic books : print culture, censorship, and modernity in twentieth-century America / Una M. Cadegan. page cm. — (Cushwa Center studies of Catholicism in twentieth-century America) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-5112-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Catholic literature—History and criticism . 2. Catholic literature—Publishing—United States—History—20th century. 3. Catholics—United States—Intellectual life—20th century. 4. Censorship— Religious aspects—Catholic Church. 5. Modernism (Christian theology)—Catholic Church. 6. Catholic Church—United States—History—20th century . I. Title. PN485.C324 2013 810.9'921282—dc23 2013004903 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my parents I write the way I do because (not though) I am a Catholic. This is a fact and nothing covers it like the bald statement. However, I am a Catholic peculiarly possessed of the modern consciousness, that thing Jung describes as unhistorical, solitary and guilty. To possess this within the Church is to bear a burden, the necessary burden for the conscious Catholic. It’s to feel the contemporary situation at the ultimate level. I think that the Church is the only thing that is going to make the terrible world we are coming to endurable; the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the body of Christ and that on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it. —Flannery O’Connor, letter to A., 20 July 1955 ...