Elbert Russell, Quaker: An Autobiography (review)

122Bulletin of Friends Historical Association which have influenced New Jersey and American life through the three centuries since William Penn and the other Quaker trustees and proprietors first drew up and adopted their liberal Concessions and Agreements of 1676. Haverford CollegeThomas E. Drake Elbert Russell, Quaker: An Autobiography. Jackson, Tennessee: Friendly Press. 1956. vi, 376 pages. $5.00. The autobiography of Elbert Russell (1871-1951) is a valuable contribution to the history of modern Quakerism written by an important participant in the making of that history. It is also a lively and readable account of a very active life lived in a variety of places and circumstances. Beyond this it is a source of inspiration, portraying as it does with simplicity and directness a man who spared no effort or sacrifice in obeying almost constant calls to religious service. The first draft of this book, covering Elbert Russell's life up to 1941, was edited by his wife and daughter. His son Josiah contributes a final chapter covering the last ten years. Had Elbert Russell lived to put the manuscript in final form, he probably would have omitted some detail, which, nevertheless, serves a purpose in portraying the life of his time. The book begins with a graphic account of Elbert Russell's boyhood in Friendsville, Tennessee, followed by the story of eleven years spent with his grandparents in Indiana after the death of his parents. Life at Earlham, first as student and then as teacher of the Bible, occupied most of the next twenty-five years. Two years were then spent in Baltimore and seven in Swarthmore where he was director of the Woolman School. From 1926 to 1941 Elbert Russell served on the faculty of the Duke University School of Religion. For the last ten years of this period he was its dean. These main epochs were interspersed by frequent periods of study and travel. Most important were a sojourn of more than a year in Europe primarily to interpret the work of the American Friends Service Committee ; a journey with a delegation to Central America in an effort to achieve peace there; three journeys to Europe to attend Ecumenical Conferences and a tour around the world during a sabbatical leave used largely to observe the impact of missionary work. The detailed accounts of these journeys include information and comments not easily found elsewhere. Elbert Russell says that in writing his History of Quakerism he realized the debt owed by Quaker historians to the writers of Friends' journals. His own biography is intended to serve a similar purpose. This is fortunate as there are few recent Quaker journals. But Elbert Russell's autobiography, like those of Rufus M. Jones, Alfred C. Garrett, and other modern Friends, is more serviceable as a history of its period than are the spiritual autobiographies of earlier times, which are directly concerned only with the "dealings of the Lord" with the individual. Elbert Book Reviews123 Russell enlivened his narrative with an account of his courtship and marriage, subjects barely mentioned in the older type of journal. To cite another difference, Elbert Russell's speaking engagements were responses to invitations, not solely occasioned by the inward movings of the Spirit. This gives a different tone to the book. However, it is important to recognize that the main decisions in Elbert Russell's life required much inward searching for Divine guidance. One could wish for more comments on conditions in the Society of Friends. Elbert Russell took seriously the query: Do Friends have "a care for the reputation of others?" He accepts the pastoral system without criticism, but rebels at the more extreme forms of revivalism. On one occasion at Western Yearly Meeting when Esther Frame asked all those who wished to go to Heaven to stand up, he remained seated. Having been brought up in a form of Quakerism largely influenced by Methodism , he was at home in the Methodist Divinity School of Duke University. In his travels as preacher and lecturer he participated as fully in Methodist as in Quaker undertakings. In his speaking he avoided the more evangelical phrases, emphasizing what he called "the mystical and ethical aspects of Christianity." He was...