Radiance from Halcyon: A Utopian Experiment in Religion and Science

Acknowledgments

I first visited the small township of Halcyon, California, on an afternoon in early 1998 in order to see its unique theosophical temple, part of a larger project I was working on concerning the built environments of American alternative religions in California that taught the unity of world religions. I did not anticipate Halcyon’s rich intersection of religion, community , and science, which was slowly revealed to me over the next twelve years. The Temple of the People, as the members of the group called themselves after 1908, provides an emblematic view into the workings of an early twentieth-century utopian colony. As is the case with many other communal groups, the Temple published a monthly magazine beginning in June 1900 called The Temple Artisan (referred to as the Artisan throughout the text and notes of this book), my greatest resource of published material on the Temple. Other shortlived publications followed, including The Clarion (1908–10), Family Letter to the Temple Folk (1921–32, 1968–69), The Halcyon Health Magazine (1923), The Electro-Medical News (1924), and extracts of founder William H. Dower’s letters, gathered together without clear source dating under the title Letters of Light (1937). The Temple also published a sizable literature on theosophical subjects. Its William Quan Judge Library, founded in the early 1930s and now including more than fifteen thousand volumes, was a tremendous resource. The Temple archive, with its wealth of pamphlets, letters, minutes, lectures, and photographs, was supplemented by materials from the Henry S. Olcott Library at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in America in Wheaton, Illinois. I would especially like to thank Betty Bland for her interest in and support of my research. Thanks also to Gretchen Seifert, Jesse Gram, and Ted and Judy Russell for their supportive xi acknowledgments 00front_Layout 1 2/12/2013 05:32 Page xi roles in Chicago, and a special thanks to Alex Schroeder in San Francisco for his friendship during numerous trips to Stanford University. I was welcomed at the Roerich Museum in New York and while in Manhattan enjoyed many helpful conversations with theosophical historian Michael Gomes. Discussions with and encouragement from Gordon Melton and access to the J. Gordon Melton American Religions Collection at the Davidson Library at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was important to my research success. I am grateful to Peter W. Williams, Charles H. Lippy, and Arthur Versluis, as well as the Society of Architectural Historians, the American Academy of Religion, the Society for Utopian Studies, and the Communal Studies Association for opportunities to publish and speak about my research . I am most appreciative for the inspiration, constructive criticism, and suggestions and comments on the project from Jeanne Halgren Kilde, James Santucci, Timothy Miller, Alfred Willis, David Morgan, Thomas Tweed, Abigail Van Slyck, Timothy Boyd, Lawrence Gipe, John Tagg, Jon Reinhardt, Phillip Adams, Keith Davis, and Gediminas Trimakas, made at various stages from initial musings to completion of the book. Theosophical archives, libraries, and sites at Point Loma, San Diego, Hollywood, Ojai, Pasadena, and Wheaton revealed a wealth of archival and periodical literature. Important sources on the Varians and life at Halcyon are located in the Varian Collection at the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, and I thank the family for permission to quote from them. Other libraries at the Union Theological Seminary (New York), Garrett Seminary (Evanston), Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena), and the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley) were important resource centers for periodicals and publications , often critical of the esoteric vision provided by American Theosophy. Finally, the librarians at Mandeville Special Collections at the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego, and the Architecture and Design Collections of the University of California, Santa Barbara, were tremendously helpful, as were the staff at the San Diego History Center, the California Room at the San Diego Public Library, the San Luis Obispo County Library and County Records, and the South County Historical Society. I acknowledge collegial support from Sarah Moore, Stacie Widdifield, Larry Busbea, and Pia Cuneo, all from the art history division of the School of Art at the University of Arizona, as well as help from Kimberly Mast and Jean Smart of the Visual Resources Center. I am grateful for several research xii acknowledgments 00front_Layout 1 2/12/2013 05:32 Page xii grants throughout the past decade from the University of Arizona, the College of Fine Arts...