The Berrigan Letters: Personal Correspondence Between Daniel and Philip Berrigan

American activists Philip and Daniel Berrigan, who hated war as profoundly as they loved God and each other, manifested these feelings through their intimate, insightful, interdependent correspondence, here gathered, edited, and annotated soundly by Cosacchi and Martin. They note that the brothers “crafted their lives with diligence, deliberation, faith, and courage.” The letters, organized chronologically, follow the brothers’ lives from 1962 until Philip’s death in 1990, years that include seminary (Daniel is a Jesuit; Philip was a Josephite until marrying), peace-keeping, lecturing, and serving the Lord as well as years in federal prisons for civil disobedience. Throughout, they wrote letters that employ personalized spelling (“wot,” “Kathlic”) and range from slapdashes about family to lengthy behind-the-scenes strategies for protests or trials. The book is thin on annotations, with Cosacchi and Martin explaining their overall curation but letting the letters speak for themselves. These spirited and spiritual letters hold opinions on AIDS, abortion, and various shakers and slackers: presidents (maligned for war-mongering), Catholics (bemoaned for un-Christlike pussy-footing), actors (Sheen and De Niro), and fellow dissidents (Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Daniel Ellsberg). Always, they express “invincible” love and gratitude, declaring each a “chief grace” to the other. (May)