Quaker Pioneers (review)

Book Reviews109 (p. ix). It does that. One feels like taking off one's hat in admiration of John Pomfret's courage and patience in telling so clearly the story of this rebellious province. F. B. T. Quaker Pioneers. By Stephen Allott. With an Introduction by Joyce Blake. London: Bannisdale Press. 1963. 127 pages. Illustrations. 18s 6d. This little book contains biographies of twelve pioneer Friends, together with authentic background and connecting material. Half of these Quaker pioneers will be familiar to most American young Friends: George Fox, Margaret Fell, William Penn, John Woolman, Elizabeth Fry, and Levi Coffin. Their biographies here recorded are a valuable addition to our literature, because of the straightforward , ungarnished, authoritative way they are presented. The other six, not so well known, will also be excellent source material: John Béliers and the care of the poor; William Tuke, education and mental health; Rachel Metcalfe and Friends' missions; George Cadbury and business; Corder Catchpool and work for peace; Pierre Ceresole and work camps. Stephen Allott has taught for the past ten years at Bootham, the Friends' school in York, England, where he has been concerned with Religious Instruction and Quaker History. He is particularly adept at managing his sources. The book deals not only with twelve Quaker pioneers, but also with the whole subject of Quaker pioneering: in their meetings for worship and business; their work for prisoners, slaves, the mentally ill, the poor, the illiterate (the Adult School Movement); peace (the Friends' Ambulance Corps and C.O.s); business (the model village at Bourneville); work camps. The total effect is more than the sum of the parts. Perhaps one might hesitate to give the book to a young teen-ager for a birthday present, but teachers, parents, and students of Quaker history will welcome it with enthusiasm and be grateful to the author for so adequately meeting their needs. PhiladelphiaAnna Pettit Broomell The Rich Heritage of Quakerism. By Walter R. Williams. Damascus, Ohio: Ohio Friends Book Concern. 1962. 279 pages. Illustrations. Maps. $4.00. It is a rich heritage that Friends share—and a varied one. Every Quaker historian tells a different story, though all deal with substantially the same facts. Walter Williams, formerly General Superintendent of Ohio Yearly Meeting held at Damascus, tells it, and tells it well, as the story of how George Fox's "spiritual reformation" developed in many directions over three hundred years and found its best twentieth-century manifestation in the Quakerism ofOhio Yearly Meeting and the Association of Evangelical Friends. Of Fox he says on his first page: "He himself had found the living Christ----The winning of souls to Christ was now his one consuming passion." And on his last page: "A real Friend is one who obeys the Lord Jesus Christ . . . and bears witness of Him to his fellow-men." After giving a brief account of the Separation of 1827, he expresses his own "deep sorrow of heart that any portion of American Quakerism should have been induced to deny our Lord, His deity, authority, and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world___" But he adds his thankfulness that God is always ready to forgive sin. Then he announces that he will give "slight attention" to the Hicksite branch: it has failed to be self-propagating and conse- ...