An Eye For Others

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An Eye For Others is a wish come true! I’ve often longed to know more about Dorothy Day’s life as a young journalist and here it is. At age 18 she was hired by The Call, a socialist daily newspaper, and quickly emerged as a brave and talented reporter more interested in suffering people than in radical ideology. The book draws deeply on her many articles for The Call, revealing how much the later Dorothy Day was visible in her younger self. McDonough also opens a window on America in the last months before it went to war in Europe.
                                                                Jim Forest, All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day

“A nation can be considered great when it ... strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work" (Pope Francis, September 24, 2015); that work began in October, 1916 when Dorothy began her career in journalism at The New York Call at the age of 18.

Guided by almost three dozen articles with her byline, we encounter a writer at the outset of her career dedicated to changing a world indifferent to the plight of the less fortunate.

Dorothy’s months at The Call  coincide with our nation’s buildup for its entrance into the war raging in Europe. While soldiers are slaughtered overseas, business has never been better in United States. This drumbeat for war sets the pace as young Dorothy composes her articles as a pacifist and friend of the working poor.

The moral dilemma of such economic prosperity due to such devastation was deeply troubling to Dorothy and left a lasting mark on her conscience; and it was her conscience, that dim voice of God, that drove her life and kept her searching for truth, justice and the right order of things.

Those who know Dorothy through her later work will recognize her eye for others and her unwavering commitment to a peaceful society through mutual cooperation, justice and brotherly love.

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"McDonough's careful work shows us that Dorothy Day's life was all of a piece, despite seeming inconsistencies. Her articles for the New York Call, written when she was only 18, demonstrate that her concern for the poor and the horrors of war and inequality that cause poverty, were present from the beginning. An important book on one of the few periods of Day's life that has not received attention."

Rosalie Riegle, Dorothy Day: Portraits by Those Who Knew Her

"This portrait of a pre-conversion Dorothy sets her in the context of her times. It is not a leap to see the relevance for today in the inequities that have been sustained for the past 100 plus years. While the church later nourished Dorothy, it is quite evident Dorothy’s consciousness illuminated and continues to illuminate the social justice consciousness of the church and the nation."

Susan Davis, Catholic Worker Volunteer, Missouri