A MINISTRY TO MAN

by Tay Hohoff ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This charmingly written book, both biography and personal appreciation, tells of the life of John Lovejoy Elliott, one of America's most vivid teachers, social reformers and humanitarians and a leader of the Ethical Culture movement. Born in 1868 in Princeton, III., of highly intelligent but far from rich parents, devoted his life long to his amazing mother,- as a young man Elliott met Felix Adler, founder of the Ethical Culture Society, who gave him his goal in life: to work for the ethical perfection of society by promoting the best life of others. Graduating from Cornell in 1892 and receiving his doctor's degree in Germany, Elliott, a man of tremendous vitality and humor and few taboos, worked with Adler's help in New York slums; in Chelsea, a poor, colorful and never dull district, he founded the Hudson Guild, one of New York's most successful and ciferous settlements; in 1933, at Adler's death, he became Senior Leader of the Ethical Culture Society, a post he held until his death in 1942. Written with wit and discrimination and pulling no punches, the book, highly specialized as to subject matter and lacking dramatic impact, will hold little appeal for addicts of popular biography but it should be welcomed by students and historians of American education and social reform and by members of the Ethical Culture Society -- and also by all those who knew, even remotely, Elliott himself.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION