It's high time the traditional Publishers of Truth—as Quakers originally called themselves—published something for today's general readers outside the Quaker fold. Bill's anthology picks up where the Quaker Reader
(edited by novelist Jessamyn West) left, focusing on writings from the latter half of the 20th century. The prose mix is lively: nonfiction devotional slices from modern mystic Thomas Kelly are served up along with such fiction as an excerpt from the murder mystery Quaker Testimony
by Irene Allen, pen name for geologist Elsa Kirsten Peters. Such dizzying range makes the point that contemporary Quakers—liberal, pastoral, evangelical—can be mildly or wildly different despite common core beliefs in peace, simplicity, truth telling and ongoing divine revelation. At the same time it offers excerpts from such better known Quaker believers as James Michener and Richard Foster, the anthology introduces such unsung writers as children's book specialist Elfrida Vipont Foulds, one of a notably large cadre of women who have always been empowered in Quaker tradition to speak or write. Anthologies are necessarily arbitrary, acknowledges editor Bill, an Earlham College writing program graduate who provides helpful biographical introductions. Still, the influential writer-educator Parker Palmer should have been included. However, this collection is a welcome reminder that the small Society of Friends, as Quakers are also known, continues to offer creative and relevant witness to the truth as found within and practiced in community. (Apr.)
