America's Gallery of .Living Catholic Authors is Now Ten Years Old

By HAROLD BUTCHER
At Webster Groves, Missouri. a State in the much-maligned Middle West of America, lives a Sister ol Loretto at the Foot of the Cross, Sister Mary Joseph, who has dreamed a dream and seen part of that dream come true.
She has seen the possibility of gathering all present-day Catholic writers of distinction into a Gallery Of Living Catholic Authors, and Ole collection of rheir works in a building for which plans have already been donated by non-Catholic Ralph Adonis Cram, noted architect, svIro is impressed both by the dream and by what has been accomplished.
Sister Mary Joseph, intellectually alert, full of enthusiasm, who spends her time travelling over ,the United States lecturing on behalf of the Gallery, was in New York just recently for the tenth anniversary of the Gallery, held in skyscraper Hotel Waldorf Astoria, where the Catholic celebrities who appeared on the programme included Jacques Mari
Padraic Colum and Sigrid Undset.
In a talk with the Sister, she told me how it all happened.
THE LIVING BEFORE THE DEAD
It started with what she felt to be a neglect of the living in favour of the dead. Thc eminence of a dead writer would be recognised while that of a living author might be overlooked. She took one steis towards putting that right when she wrote on living Catholic essayists for her Master's thesis, but when she' tried to continue the good work by writing up living Catholic authors for her Ph.D. degree she was not permitted to do so. Not scholarly enough. " So I had to take Wordsworth, and I wrote a rather wrathful thesis proving that he was not a teacher —despite his statement to that effect in `The Excursion.'"
Her doctorate safely and conventionally acquired, Sister Mary Joseph was free to develop what she regarded as her real work.
During the eight years she was librarian at Webster College, Webster Groves, she began work on the Gallery. In 1932 she made a list of 100 Catholic writers who, in her view, belonged in any such gallery, and submitted it to a few experts who heartily agreed with her selection. She wrote to these authors and received 96 replies, each writer sending her a photograph, a letter on some special phase of liters
Lure, and a page or more of manuscript front one of his works.
To-day, in the 130-foot central corridor of Gallery Hall, Webster College. there are cases containing 25,000 pages or manuscript and over 300 letters and photographs. In addition, a eaid catalogue gives biographical and bibliographical data on 5,000 authors. The original autographed photographs are copied and pages of manuscript arc photostated for exhibition purposes.
Messages came from authors supporting Sister Mary Joseph in her enterprise. " The time has come for a more intellectual contact between 'Catholics," wrote Christopher Dawson. " We need an international culture to meet the international challenge of secularism."
FORTY "IMMORTALS"
And " international "—truly catholic, universal—the Gallery soon proved to be. Any Catholic author, of any nation or race, whose writings reached an adequate cultural level, could become a member; and when the Gallery was 200 strong steps were taken to create an Academy, after the manner of the French Academy, from this number.
The number of " immortals " was fixed at forty, and there are thirty-six in the Academy at the moment. A national literary plebiscite determined who were worthy to be included, outstanding distinction being the test. Elections may be held annually until the quota is filled, hut some years arc skipped when nobody seems to qualify.
G. K. Chesterton was unanimously elected, but died before the formal opening of the Academy : he was the first to receive at his death the Apostolic blessing bestowed by Pope Pius XI, which carries with it a plenary indulgence at the hour of death for each author-member.
Fifteen American and twenty-five non-American authors are eligible for the Academy ; and this generous allowance for non-American membership in an organisation started in the United States shows that the Board of Governors understands the importance of maintaining its universal character. Jacques Maritain and Sigrid Undset, who spoke at the recent tenth birthday meeting in New York, are, of course, members of the Academy.
GILL GETS LAST AWARD Although Academy membership is limited to forty, the membership of the Gallery is unlimited. Theoretically every Catholic author working anywhere on the planet could became a member—if all Catholic author i were good writers and able to produce more than one book! Last year 126 names were before the Board, but only four were accepted. It has been deemed necessary to rule that each author must have written at least two books, and a certain Ilk:12.11y standard is an obvious requirement,
The Gallery literary ,award in 1940 went to Eric Gill, who was a member when he died, Sister Mary Joseph showed me the framed testimonial which will go to England, where it will find a home, as soon as someone can be found to take it across the ocean, The testimonial states that the Gallery's " Catholic literary award for 1940 " was made to Eric Gill for his autobiography. which was judged by the Board of Governors as " the best in literary excellence and treatment of subject in English published by members of the Gallery of Living Catholic Authors in that year." The signatures are those of Francis X. Talbot, Si., President, and Sister Mary Joseph, Director; and the place and time—Webster Groves, Missouri, Feast of Christ the King, October 20, 1941.
For its motto, the Gallery went to, the opening words of St. John's Gospel —In vat principio verbum. The Word was in the beginning, and the printed words of Catholic authors carry Catholic culture. The Gallery is a concrete expression of the cultural apostolatc of Catholic letters, a well-planned programme to focus the attention of the Catholic reading public on contemporary Catholic literature, and the first attempt in Catholic literary history to co-ordinate the works of living Catholic writers into a " sanctioned brotherhood of all peoples of all lands."