"Keep a True Lent" by Charles Sherlock Fillmore, c.1953.
There is no publishing date in the book, and sources online don't give much info, either. The best date I can find is 1953...although Fillmore died in 1948. This book could easily be 57 years old, though.
When he was ten, Charles broke his hip in an ice-skating accident that left him permanently injured. He married his wife, Myrtle, in 1881, who suffered from tuberculosis as a child and was never expected to live.
In the early 1880s, he established a real estate business with the brother-in-law of Nona Lovell Brooks, the founder the Church of Divine Science in 1899.
In 1886, the Fillmores attended New Thought classes and soon began to both heal from their childhood afflictions and injuries, both attributing their recoveries to prayer and the new philosophies that they had begun to study.
Charles and Myrtle founded Unity Church in 1889, the name coming from Charles' prayer group named "Silent Unity" and out of a legal dispute over Mary Baker Eddy's use of "Christian Science."
Two years later, Charlies published his first magazine, titled "Unity" which would feature H. Emilie Cady's articles "Lessons in Truth", which would later be published into a book themselves and become the core text of the church (see yesterday's book).Unity now has over 2 million followers and its headquarters is now "Unity Village" in Jackson County, Missouri, population 140 in 2000.
I am fascinated that all these people knew each other and split off into their own branches of the New Thought movement.
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Inside the book is an address label of my grandmother's as well as a handful of bookmarks, once again.
The first bookmark is a medical appointment card from the Friendly Hills Medical Group on Almahurst, City of Industry. Her appointment was at 11am on Tuesday, December 13. Within the last few decades of my grandmother's life, December 13th fell on a Tuesday in 1966, 1977, 1983, and 1988. I don't think the card is older than 1983, though.
The second bookmark is a yellow business card for Sotero Fernandez Tree Care, still in business.
The third bookmark is a hand-painted bookmark depicting a sailboat race on one side and a tree-lined beach on the other. It reads "Palm Park, Santa Barbara" on the beach side.
The fourth bookmark is a green Unity pamphlet titled "Spiritual Communion Service".
The fifth bookmark is a paperclip gripping the side of page 107/108.
The sixth bookmark is a valentine card with Chip and Dale Chipmunk and one of the Three Little Pigs having a cupcake picnic. On the back: "Love, Jim, Jan, Susie + Lisa" - my uncle, aunt and cousins. The pig is the smarter one who build his house from bricks - he's wearing overalls.
The seventh bookmark is another paperclip on the top of the last page, before the index. The metal on both paperclips has stained the touching pages.
Tucked into the index is a typed sheet, folded twice to fit inside the book. "Affirmations from MAY ROLAND'S personal notebook." It talks about being eternally young, giving thanks for having a perfect weight, not overeating, being new and fresh every morning, rejuvenating brain cells, being divine and how the mind constantly creates the youth pattern instead of the pattern of age. The number "135" was hand-written in for the perfect weight, but it was clearly changed from "145".
The final bookmark is just inside the back cover, and it is "The Unity Lenten Guide to be used with the book Keep a True Lent".
BOOK FIFTYONE
"The Kingship of Self-Control" by William George Jordan, 1899.
On the first page is a name that (as best as I can tell) reads "Belle C. Murdoch, Chicago 1918". The name is completely unfamiliar to me, but my grandfather was born in Chicago and grew up there.
In the early 1900s, William wrote a handful of religious and self help books. This is not his most famous one.
Chapters 2, 3 and 5 are titled: "The Crimes of the Tongue", "The Red Tape of Duty", and "Worry, The Great American Disease".
At 59 pages, the book is a quick read and a few passages from chapter 3 are marked in pencil, the final part of the chapter is as follows:
"The greatest triumph of the nineteenth century is not its marvellous progress in invention; its strides in education; its conquests of the dark regions of the world; the spread of a higher mental tone throughout the earth; the wondrous increase in material comfort and wealth, - the greatest triumph of the century is not any nor all of these; it is the sweet atmosphere of Peace that is covering the nations, it is the growing closer and closer of the peoples of the earth. Peace is but the breath, the perfume, the life of love. Love is the wondrous angel of life that rolls away all the stones of sorrow and suffering from the pathway of duty."
15 years later, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria would be assassinated, triggering The First World War.
BOOK FIFTYTWO
"Don't Worry Nuggets" by Jeanne G. Pennington, 1898.
Pennington compiled paragraphs from Epictetus, Emerson, George Eliot, and Robert Browning for this tiny book. She also published "Good Cheer Nuggets" and "Philosophical Nuggets".
Attached to the first page is a tiny note card reading:
"For Marcia, From 'Jennie.' Xmas 1898. Not because I think she needs 'Don't Worry Nuggets', but they may prove interesting at odd moments. Affectionately, Judith"
The names are not familiar.
I also found an ad for the book (and its series) in 'The Publishers' Weekly' from September 30th, 1899. The review reads: "Hardly a paragraph that does not bring a new sense of strength and comfort."
BOOK FIFTYTHREE
"Training for the Life of the Spirit - Pamphlet No. 2" by Gerald Heard, 1942.
There are 2 copies of this book, along with Pamphlet No. 1, which I will save for another day. One of the books is in perfect original condition, save for a stamp on the first page for the Metaphysical Bookstore at 177 Post St. The other book has the same stamp, of course, but is marked up something fierce with penciled-in notes, presumably Jean's.
Heard was a well-regarded British/Irish philosopher, but wrote this book 3 years after meeting Swami Prabhavananda, the founder of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. After his shift in thought, he was dismissed as a "mystic" by the press, although still respected as a brilliant man.
Another work by Heard is titled "Pain, Sex and Time".
BOOK FIFTYFOUR
"Divine Remedies - A Textbook on Christian Healing" by Theodosia DeWitt Schobert, 1945.
A revised edition of day 43's book, this one has yet another sticker from the Metaphysical Bookstore at 177 Post Street.
Between pages 14 and 15 is an aged business reply card for Lawrence G. Newhouse in Vista, California to order a copy of 'The Drama of Incarnation' by Flower A. Newhouse.
Flower and her husband Lawrence were Reverends who founded a 640 acre retreat in the hills north of San Diego during the early 1940s. They began their dream of providing a spiritual haven with the renovation of one small, abandoned, stone house. You can still receive inner guidance at 'Questhaven Retreat' today.
BOOK FIFTYFIVE
"The Dying Day" by Wlodzimierz Odojewski, 1959 - this English translation, 1964.
A novel by the Polish writer, his work "is characterized by an obsession with time, memory, and the inevitable coming of disaster and catastrophe." (taken from culture.pl) I'm already fascinated and wish I could read the original Polish text. Until I learn that language, this translation will have to do.
BOOK FIFTYSIX
"Miscellaneous Writings" by H. Emilie Cady, 1926.
Another work by Cady, this is also published by the Unity Church out of Kansas City.
On the first page, a few names are written: June Leland, J. M. L., and Mitele J. Leland. There are a handful of childlike scribbles on a few pages and I'm wondering if "Mitele" was a misspelled attempt at Michelle or Michael, as "Mitele" isn't in the most accomplished of cursive, whereas June's was.
Either way, none of the names are familiar to me.
Between pages 32 and 33 is a folded up "Practice Quiz on California Vehicle Code" issued by the Automobile Club of Southern California from September 1957. The page is aged brown and has stained pages 32 and 33.All 60 questions are multiple choice (A, B, or C) and have a circled answer penciled in. Using the answer guide on the back of the pamphlet, I checked the subject's work and found that only one question was answered incorrectly, and one (a 3-part question on hand signals) was left unanswered.
Overall, I think this motorist is ready for the roads of 1957.
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