The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day

First published: 1952

Type of work: Autobiography

Time of work: 1897-1952

Locale: Primarily New York

Principal Personages:

• Dorothy Day, a writer and Catholic activist
• Forster Batterham, her common-law husband
• Peter Maurin, an itinerant Catholic worker

Form and Content

Dorothy Day’s “road to Rome” was far from straight and narrow. The Long Loneliness is an autobiographical account of the spiritual odyssey that brought her to Catholicism and to cofound the Catholic Worker movement. A writer by profession, she produced a book that reflects her expertise in conveying her feelings and beliefs to the average reader while at the same time satisfying the demands of the scholar. Her earlier autobiography, From Union Square to Rome (1938), was criticized by such diverse publications as Catholic World and The New Republic for its vagueness and its lack of an orderly presentation of her thought. The Long Loneliness remedies those defects.

Aside from the four-page introduction titled “Confession,” the book is divided into three parts, each corresponding to a different phase of her life. Part 1, “Searching,” begins with her birth and ends at an undefined point in the 1920’s. The touchstones used to measure the state of her life during these early years, as with all of her life, are religion and her response to it. While religion was given scant attention in her home, she appears to have been a born mystic. From her earliest recollections, even the mention of God or the sight of someone at prayer affected her deeply. From childhood into her late teens, she cultivated a deep spirituality. A professor at the University of Illinois, however, convinced her that religion was but a crutch for the weak while she was one of the strong. Radical politics and journalism were substituted for religion. While these would always constitute essential elements of her life, they proved to be inadequate unless combined with a spiritual component. Her faith was, in time, revived, and a new Dorothy Day was in the making.

Part 2, “Natural Happiness,” appears to be a continuation of part 1, but there is a change of focus that makes this section unique. It is a phase of transition. Its highlights are the birth of a daughter, Tamar Teresa, resulting from her common-law marriage to Forster Batterham, an anarchist by conviction and a biologist by profession, and her entry into the Catholic church. In effect, her conversion had occurred prior to the child’s birth. Until then, however, she had tried to have it both ways: practicing Catholicism to the extent possible without being a formal member while living with a man without benefit of clergy. Her determination that her daughter would be reared as a Catholic led her to conclude that she, in conscience, must enter the Church and leave her atheistic lover, who would have no part of a church marriage. One stage of her life was ending, but another had not quite begun. Somehow her life as a Catholic had to be blended with her journalistic talents and service to the poor. A move to New York in search of this synthesis brought her into contact with an itinerant French peasant and philosopher with a dream, Peter Maurin. Part 3, “Love Is the Message,” begins with her meeting with Maurin in 1932 and ends with his death in 1949. Together they founded The Catholic Worker newspaper and the movement of the same name. The synthesis had been effected.

Day’s purpose for writing The Long Loneliness is never stated. Given the work’s conclusion and date of publication, however, Maurin’s death was probably influential. She looked upon him as her teacher, and he had set her life on the course it was to follow thereafter. With his passing, another era in her life had passed.

Nevertheless, the book, or one like it, would probably have been written: She, like the critics, found From Union Square to Rome inadequate—but for a different reason. She had omitted the negative aspects of her life, concentrating on those things that had led her to God. In retrospect, she realized that what was meant to edify would discourage rather than encourage emulation. Joy without sorrow and good without evil do not correspond to the human condition. Thus, just as she gave herself to others in her daily life, she gave her story without reservation to her readers in The Long Loneliness. She wrote as she was “impelled to write”; for her, this meant that “you write about yourself because in the long run all man’s problems are the same, his human needs of sustenance and love.” Nevertheless, she noted, given the importance of the individual in the eyes of God, it is vital to seek an understanding of the meaning of life and the destiny of man. This added dimension makes the book something more than an autobiography.

Critical Context

The Long Loneliness is the centerpiece of Dorothy Day’s works. Her early articles in such publications as the Socialist Party’s Call, the Communist Party’s The Masses, The Liberator, and New Masses, and the liberal Catholic Commonweal are all but forgotten, as is her fictionalized autobiography, The Eleventh Virgin (1924). The inadequacies of From Union Square to Rome have been noted. Yet these earlier bits and pieces all contain elements of the Dorothy Day who emerges in The Long Loneliness, the work of a mature and integrated personality.

Loaves and Fishes, her history of the Catholic Worker movement published in 1963, can rightly be termed a sequel to The Long Loneliness. As autobiographical as it is historical, it resembles its predecessor. Though received by reviewers with acclaim, it is no substitute for The Long Loneliness. Although it can stand alone, it takes on an additional dimension when the two are combined.

Therese (1960), a biography of Therese de Lisieux, proves that Day can write just as well working from written source materials as she can from personal experiences. It also reconfirms her standing as an expert biographer. Not only the principal subject of the book but also every member of her family comes vividly to life. As in The Long Loneliness and Loaves and Fishes, Day demonstrates that she is second to none in understanding different personalities and depicting them as unique individuals.

She states in the preface to Therese that one of her reasons for writing the book was to make Catholics who think of themselves as being of little worth understand that they are much more. Therese led her life in obscurity but nevertheless came to affect the world and countless people in it. Day might have said the same about herself. Like Therese’s autobiography, hers demonstrates how much one can affect the lives of others by doing small things, in her case performing acts of charity for the littlest people of all. Therein lies the significance and popularity of this book. However helpless or powerless one feels, an accumulation of little things is no little thing in the eyes of God.

Bibliography

Jones, Margaret C. Heretics and Hellraisers: Women Contributors to “The Masses,” 1911-1917. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. Analyzes the writings and art of more than thirty women. Considers their creative works part of the feminist legacy. Day’s later views on feminism are considered ironic. Illustrations, notes, and bibliography.

Klejment, Anne, and Alice Klejment. Dorothy Day and “The Catholic Worker”: A Bibliography and Index. New York: Garland Press, 1986. A tool for further research, the work lists Day’s known publications, indexes the Catholic Worker chronologically and by author, and annotates one hundred books and articles by other authors on a wide range of issues relating to Day and her movement. Author and title indexes are included.

Mason, Mary. “Dorothy Day and Women’s Spiritual Autobiography.” In American Women’s Autobiography:Fea(s)ts of Memory, edited by Margo Culley. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992. A major feminist appraisal of Day’s writings. Argues that Day felt ambivalent about women’s roles. Includes notes and a bibliography.

Miller, William D. Dorothy Day: A Biography. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982. An important biography of Day with a focus on the period before 1945. Examines Day’s public and private life, including her relationship with her daughter. Based on materials unavailable to other researchers. The author is unfamiliar with feminist theory. No notes or bibliography. Photographs.

Roberts, Nancy L. Dorothy Day and the “Catholic Worker.” Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984. A highly accessible book recommended for the reader who is interested in the history of the movement and in Day’s journalism career. Notes, bibliography, and illustrations. Advances a strong argument for Dorothy Day’s skills as writer, editor, and publisher.