I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You

Ralph Mcinerny

Description

With I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You, Ralph McInerny—distinguished scholar, mystery writer, editor, publisher, and family man—delivers a thoroughly engaging memoir. In the course of his recollections, McInerny describes his childhood in Minnesota; his grammar school and seminary education, with his decision to leave the path toward ordination; his marriage to his beloved Connie and their active family life and travels; and his life as a fiction writer. We learn of his career as a Catholic professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, his views on the Catholic Church, his experiences as an editor and publisher of Catholic magazines and reviews, his involvement with the International Catholic University, and his thoughts on other Catholic writers. Part homage to his academic home for the last half century and part appreciation of the many significant friendships he has fostered over his life, McInerny's reminiscences beautifully convey his lively interest in the world and his gift for friendship and collegiality.

Written in his characteristically elegant style, by turns charming, poignant, humorous, and revealing, I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You will delight McInerny's many devoted readers.

Sujets

• Educators
• Journalists
• Personal Memoirs
• Publishers
• Biography
• Father Dowling Mysteries
• Notre Dame
• Teacher
• Publishing
• Journalist
• Autobiography
• Editors

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 août 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268086848
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

I A L O N E HAVE ESCAPED TO TELL YOU

r a l p h m c i n e r n y

I A L O N E HAVE ESC APED TO TELL YOU

m y l i f e a n d p a s t i m e s

u n i v e r s i t y o f n o t r e d a m e p r e s s n o t r e d a m e , i n d i a n a

Copyright ©2006by University ofNotre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States ofAmerica

Library ofCongress Cataloging in-Publication Data

McInerny, Ralph M. I alone have escaped to tell you : my life and pastimes / Ralph McInerny. p. cm. isbn-13: 978-0-268-03492-4(alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-268-03492-3(alk. paper) 1 . McInerny, Ralph M.2. McInerny, Ralph M.—Friends and associates. 3. Novelists, American—20th century—Biography.4. Catholic authors— United States—Biography.5. College teachers—United States—Biography. 6. University of Notre Dame—Biography. I. Title. ps3563.a31166z462006 813'.54—dc22

2006000840

In Memoriam

uxoris meae Constantiae

Autobiographies are not really serious in the way novels are.

— Kingsley Amis

The best of a bad job is all the most of us make of it—except of course the saints. —T. S. Eliot

Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.

—Virgil

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to say that this book is not theconfessionsof st. augustine may sound as gratuitous as saying that none of my novels isWar and Peace,but the remark has point. In writing these memoirs I have been conscious of the fact that I am not writing the story of a soul; that would be an altogether more depressing exercise. The septuagenarian finds self- delusion difficult, and there is an account of my life that could be of in- terest only to God and myself. Remember Augustine’s addressee. Only a saint could be so unflinchingly honest about his life, and I—another needless disclaimer—am no saint. What I have written is the truth, but of course it is not the whole truth, not even the fuller grasp I myself might have of it. Even for that, I would want to invoke St. Paul’sneque meipsum iudico, and his admission that he remained largely a mystery to himself was even unable to say for certain that he was in the state of grace. When friends of mine suggested that I write an autobiography I was at first amused. But the thought grew on me, as unfriendly suggestions will, and I imagined writing little bursts on the order of the End Notes I did for each issue ofCrisis: episodes, people, events, arranged more or

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