{"product_id":"the-life-you-save-may-be-your-own-an-american-pilgrimage-9781250399144","title":"The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE PEN\/MARTHA ALBRAND AWARD FOR FIRST NONFICTION\u003cbr\u003eFINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY\u003cbr\u003eNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eTHE ATLANTIC \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThomas Merton was a Trappist monk in Kentucky; Dorothy Day the founder of the\u003ci\u003e Catholic Worker \u003c\/i\u003ein New York; Flannery O'Connor a \"Christ-haunted\" literary prodigy in Georgia; and Walker Percy a doctor in Louisiana who had quit medicine in order to write. Although they never met as a group, for three decades they read one another's work, corresponded, and grappled with what Percy called a \"predicament shared in common\" their\u003cbr\u003edesire to reconcile the claims of faith and art. A friend came up with a name for them--the School of the Holy Ghost. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Life You Save May Be Your Own\u003c\/i\u003e is Paul Elie's now-classic group portrait of these four writers and the artistic and religious milieu they made their own. It is a riveting history of America's first Catholic literary moment--as the four go on pilgrimage from the God-obsessed literary past of Dante and Dostoevsky out into the chaos of postwar American life. It is a narrative of the ways faith took on forms the faithful could not have anticipated--\u003cbr\u003ethrough memoir and modernist fiction, in soup kitchens and street protests. And it is a story about the ways we look to great books and writers to help us make sense of our experience. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith a new afterword by the author, \u003ci\u003eThe Life You Save May Be Your Own \u003c\/i\u003edemonstrates the power of great writing to change--and save--our lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Paul Elie\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Picador USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/27\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 592\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.95lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.60w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781250399144","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44002771599497,"sku":"9781250399144","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_51d134b4-029d-4302-b528-d5beea5709a3.jpg?v=1747720506","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/the-life-you-save-may-be-your-own-an-american-pilgrimage-9781250399144","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}