The Dorothy Day Library on the Web includes all of Dorothy Day’s writings in The Catholic Worker newspaper as well as selected articles published elsewhere and many of her books.
You can use the search form above, or browse the writings using one of the methods below.
For an additional list of resources about Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement, see the bibliography.
Note that these dropdown menus cover all posts on the CatholicWorker.org website. However, posts listed under 1981 or earlier are exclusively from Dorothy’s writings.
An account of the first five years of the Catholic Worker. Describes the C.W. not simply as a newspaper but as a movement. Explicates its position on labor and unions through Peter Maurin’s ideas on personalism. Much of the book, however, is taken up with the day to day experiences of the C.W., describing the soup lines, publication of the paper, picketing, farm communes, and the finances of the C.W. (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1939.
States the objectives of the Catholic Worker and defends it against the accusations of other Catholics and secular thought. Writes on such themes as marriage, sex, the human condition, poverty, economics and a variety of Church doctrines. All of these topics are treated from an orthodox Catholic point of view. The book is adapted from the diary she kept in 1948, when she spent the first four months with Tamar (daughter) and the rest of the year at Mott Street and the retreat farm in Newburgh. She noted that the book could be called a woman’s book, since parts of it are directed solely to women. As usual, much of the book dwells on the day-to-day happenings in her life.
An autobiography written as a letter to her brother John. Conversion story genre of her conversion from Communism to Catholicism. Compiled from articles in America and Preservation of the Faith. Discusses Dostoyevsky’s influence on her life and the lonely experience of her conversion Reads as a baptized version of The Eleventh Virgin, with emphasis on her religious experience throughout her life. Expounds on such topics as Eucharist, prayer, Marxism, capitalism, free will and St. Teresa of Avila.
Autobiographical novel of her pre-conversion years. Begins with family relationships, with emphasis on her mother. Proceeds through her radical years with the pacifist, birth control, socialist and suffrage movements, and ends with her abortion and break up with Lionel Moise (Dick Wemys). William Miller’s biography on D.orothyDay gives the real names of the characters. The New York Times reviewed the book as “just one more adolescent novel,” and D.orothy herself later called it a bad book.
Summary: Her theme is food in the scriptures, fasting, unnecessary desires, factory food against the backdrop of the Lenten observance of fasting as a way to freedom. (The Catholic Worker, March 1944, 1,2. DDLW #399).
Summary: A set of short entries from her diary, including descriptions of anti-nuclear demonstrations and the subsequent arrests of participants, the death of several friends, politics on Cuba, and a book on Catholic Worker conscientious objectors in World War II. Mentions many friends and books. (The Catholic Worker, September 1979, 4. DDLW #600).
Summary: An appeal for funds. Lauds begging and says what is given is given to Christ who is sometimes hard to see in the destitute. Says all are poor in some way. (DDLW #912). The Catholic Worker, November 1952, p.
Summary: Deep in winter at her daughter’s farm in West Virginia they await the birth of Tamar’s third child. Reflects on country life and a woman’s spirituality in the midst of small children and housework. Describes her efforts at prayer. Reflects on the handicrafts Tamar practices and the worth of a country economy, a way to be co-creators with God. Notes the duty to find joy and resist despair. Long quotes from Eric Gill on a decentralized economy. Keywords: family, poverty, personalism, distributism, capitalism, socialism, communism. (DDLW #476: Catholic Worker Books, New York, 1948, pp. 3-26.)
Summary: Describes the agrarian life at the Easton, Pennsylvania, farm–plans for the barns, a newborn lamb, and the promise of goats. Tells of stopping in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on her way West. (The Catholic Worker, May 1937, 4, 7. DDLW #321).
Summary: “Those of you who read this, those of you who have helped us before, help us.” A thousand poor people come for food each day–“. . .they are Christ appearing to you.” In spite of their dire straits, war and preparation for war, she calls for rejoicing in nature and for what they have and God sends. (DDLW #364). The Catholic Worker, July-August 1940.
Summary: Appeals to readers for money to assist children from East Harlem to spend a summer at the beach. (The Catholic Worker, June 1955, 5. DDLW #688).
Summary: Rumination on the recent deaths of three loved ones: Jenny Moore, W.H. Auden and Franklin Spier, Day’s brother-in-law. How each touched and influenced her emotional and intellectual development. In thinking about death, also ponders Heaven and the importance of the Transfiguration. (DDLW #534). The Catholic Worker, October-November 1973, 1, 8.
