He was an old man, near the end of a long and brilliant career. He had been a social reformer. An advocate for the rights of Native Americans, a legal scholar still recognized as one of America's great experts on comparative law, a General, a Justice, and the man who, for all intents and purposes, recreated the Scottish Rite.
She was a girl in her teens; a young lady in impoverished circumstances, who, quite by chance, accompanied a friend on a visit to a sculptor, picked up a piece of clay, and was discovered to have a talent which would almost instantly propel her to prominence as America's leading sculptress. They met and discovered a relationship which was as powerful as it was platonic.
He was Albert Pike. She was Vinnie Ream. And it was truly a September song.
Letters from Vinnie, by Maureen Stack Sappéy, Front Street Books, Hardbound, 248 pages, pub. 1999, ISBN 1–886910–31–6, available on the Internet for $11.86
The book is a fictionalized account of Vinnie Ream, supposedly told through letters she wrote to a friend. There is actually little fiction—most of it is based on well-researched fact, and the author is careful at the end to tell us what was created and what was historical. The writing does an excellent job of recreating the style of written expression of the time. I had not noticed the note of fictionalization when I started to read the book, and I was convinced that the letters were genuine—the author is highly skillful.
And a fascinating story it is to tell, for Vinnie Ream was an extraordinary woman, living in an extraordinary time. She was, after all, the one who won the commission from Congress, after an intense competition, to create the official statue of Lincoln after his assassination, and she had been sculpting for only a very few years at the time. But she had a remarkable ability to see into the soul of her subject, and to capture it. If you've seen the statue of Lincoln in the Capitol, you know what I mean.
The one disappointment is that Pike does not appear in the book, and it seems to me that the author missed a great opportunity. But read the book in spite of that. You'll see the events of the Civil War from a new perspective and gain a powerful insight into the emotional history of our nation.
I'm not quite sure how to describe the second book this month, other than to say it's on my personal short must-read list.
The Theology of Crime and The Paradox of Freedom: The Masonic Writings of Dr. E. Scott Ryan by E. Scott Ryan. Anchor Communications, Hardbound, 156 pages. Pub. 2000, ISBN 0-935633-20-0, Order from Anchor Communications, PO Box 70, Highland Springs, VA 23075–0070 $22.95 s/h $3 for the first book, $1 for each additional book.
Any short description of this book will be inadequate (as you can tell from the first part of the title, "The Theology of Crime"), but this is an important work in explaining both the rise of Nazis and of Fundamentalism. Dr. Ryan is a criminologist by profession, and a very highly regarded one at that. But he is also a philosopher, and those threads come together with many others in his fascinating book. He examines the way in which a people's sense of being "chosen"—whether religiously, politically, economically, or culturally—often gives way to an attitude, which justifies any possible exploitation of those who are not "of the group." And he shows how Freemasonry, with its insistence on toleration, has always been the opponent of such exploitation.
That makes the book sound dry, though it is anything but dry. Thought-provoking, and sometimes just provoking, this study leads the reader to see the important role Freemasonry has played in the world, and it implicitly challenges us not to lose sight of our mission.
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Jim Tresner is Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute and Editor of The Oklahoma Mason. A frequent contributor to the Scottish Rite Journal and its book review editor, Illustrious Brother Tresner is also a volunteer writer for The Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason and a video script consultant for the National Masonic Renewal Committee. He is the Director of the Thirty-third Degree Conferral Team and Director of Work at the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as well as a life member of the Scottish Rite Research Society, author of the popular anecdotal biography Albert Pike, The Man Beyond the Monument, and a member of the steering committee of the Masonic Information Center. Ill. Tresner was awarded the Grand Cross, the Scottish Rite's highest honor, during the Supreme Council's October 1997 Biennial Session. |