Philadelphia Quakers 1681-1981 (review)

120Quaker History traits through delightful anecdotes. Whole and part support and clarify one anodier. The book tells the story of great events, powerful leaders and significant impact on the Religious Society of Friends. It is valuable for that, but it is even more valuable for its account of the struggle to realize ideals in a community made up of poignantly human beings. It shows the inescapable tensions and contradictions of trying to be what Pendle Hill aims to be. Pendle Hill was established as "a haven of rest, a school for the prophets, a laboratory of ideas, a fellowship of cooperation." The curriculum was originally designed for mature people, college graduates who did not need grades to do significant intellectual work in a school where physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual labor would all go together. Both Henry Hodgkin and die Brintons—whose influence on Pendle Hill dominates this history—assumed high academic standards as the cornerstone around which they could build a learning community. In fact, as the book amply documents, such standards could not be assumed, nor could the commitment to community. In the first year, two of the three staff families lived off-campus, and Henry Hodgkin complained that Henry Sharman "has not fused in the group life." In the second year of the school, a crisis developed around a student which put the Director between the Board and the resident community. One knowing the turmoil of the past twenty years at Pendle Hill can take some comfort from seeing that though there have been great years there have never been any good old days. The book forthrightly describes the terrible strain Pendle Hill has put on its leaders—five or six directors and nine or ten acting directors in fifty years, breakdowns of health, unhappy departures, a sense of being used up and repudiated by students and colleagues. That is not the only story told here, of course, and it is not the whole story of Pendle Hill. It has been a haven of rest, school for prophets, laboratory and fellowship for many people who have gone from it to live richer, more productive lives because of their time there. But Eleanor Price Mather has been careful to describe the shadow side of Pendle Hill—appropriate to a place so influenced by Jung—and that is a significant measure of the value of the book. Institutional histories of far greater length have accomplished much less in honest perception. Earlham CollegePaul A. Lacey Philadelphia Quakers 1681-1981. By Robert H. Wilson. Philadelphia, PA, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1981. 132 pp., profusely illustrated. $14.95. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has marked its tercentenary in a splendid fashion with this picture book about Quakers in the Deleware Valley. The volume begins with the coming of Friends to America two decades before the first settlers arrived in Salem with John Fenwick, and concludes with the new retirement homes which have been built in the 1960's and 70's. While there is a fair amount of descriptive text along with the pictures, the volume has made no effort to provide a comprehensive history of the Yearly Meeting or of Friends in the region. The editor, Robert H. Wilson, tastefully combined contemporary drawings and historical engravings and etchings with hundreds of photographs to illus- Reviews121 trate the book. Some of the photographs are reproductions from the 19th century although the majority were taken expressly for this book. There are a few colored plates but most of die picture material is in black and white. The first 78 pages trace the history of the Yearly Meeting in some rough chronological order and the last 50 pages cover a great variety of topics from Quakers and art to education, Friends in business, facilities for retiring Friends, Quakers and nature, and the American Friends Service Committee. Unfortunately, there is neither a summary of contents in the beginning nor an index at the end. Perhaps this is justified by the fact that the volume is sub-titled "A Tercentenary Family Album," but this makes it very difficult for anyone to look up a particular subject in the volume. One is surprised to find two and one-half pages...