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: Explains the C.W.’s perpetual necessity to help the poor. Objects when states responsibility impedes personal responsibility. Calls her readers to have a Christ room in their homes, hospices in poor parishes and coffee lines for the transients, in order to exercise personal responsibility. (The Catholic Worker, February 1938, 1-2 DDLW #145).
Summary: Contrasts ugliness (a street fight) and beauty (a recitation of the psalms at the house by a friend). Mentions visitors, a birth, a death, and a day of recollection. (The Catholic Worker, January 1941, 1, 4. DDLW #370).
Summary: Describes their Thanksgiving feast. Despite the fact that donations were sparse, all enjoy a filling, yet sober, celebration. Notes the beginning of Advent and thoughts of feasting turn to fasting. Describes her speaking tour of New England, meditates on the virtues of manual labor, and reminds her readers that the truckmen of Burlington are suffering real privation during their strike. (The Catholic Worker, December 1939, 4. DDLW #351).
Summary: Retells the non-violent efforts of the 13th Century Russian hero Alexander Nevsky with the Mongol invaders. Notes the parallel to the new United Nations where East and West try to avoid atomic war where there are no victors. Urges the study of history. Keywords: books, Russia, prayer (DDLW #771).The Catholic Worker, October 1060, 1, 3.
Summary: Jottings about music, dramas, and documentaries she enjoyed on TV and radio. Notes the comings and goings of friends and recollects times past. Mentions where she learned about praying for those who commit suicide. (DDLW #922) The Catholic Worker, July-August 1980, 2, 6.
Summary: Protesting against a journalist’s assertion that they are sentimentalists in their pacifism and afraid of suffering, she challenges her critics to spend time in the city slums where Catholic Workers regularly battle the realities of disease, poverty, filth, cold, foul smells, etc. Quoting Dostoevsky, she assures her readers that Catholic Workers were not sanctimonious but approached their work with true humility and love. Notes with irony that pacifism, while not popular with society as a whole, was the philosophy which society wished to impose on the poor and disenfranchised victims of America’s class war. Rejects the suggestion that they should remain silent. (DDLW #390). The Catholic Worker, February 1942, 1, 4, 7.
Summary: Urgent appeal to protest the peace-time Conscription Bill before Congress. Asks readers to write their Congressmen noting that any delay will make for “clear and calm reasoning.” (DDLW #365).T he Catholic Worker, September 1940, 1
Summary: Tells of the work and people at numerous Catholic Worker houses and farms on a journey through New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. (The Catholic Worker, December 1945, 7, 8. DDLW #224).
