"Margaret Cropper was the first to capture [Evelyn Underhill's] life, which now in this new century can continue to inspire, challenge and point the way for those on the ancient quest for the holy." —from the Foreword by Dana Greene, dean of Oxford College of Emory University SkyLight Lives reintroduces the lives and works of key spiritual figures of our time—people who by their teaching or example have challenged our assumptions about spirituality and have caused us to look at it in new ways. Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) was one of the most highly acclaimed spiritual thinkers of her day. Her fresh approach to mysticism provided one of the first invitations to modern seekers to realize that not only saints or great holy men could experience the love of God—but that all people contain within them a capacity for the Divine. This intimate biography, written by one of Underhill’s closest friends, allows us to appreciate this revolutionary woman as both a charming, down-to-earth friend and a groundbreaking spiritual seeker and guide. Through letters, personal reminiscences, and excerpts from Underhill’s much-loved published writings—including her definitive Mysticism, published in 1911 and continuously in print since then—Margaret Cropper captures the spirit, journey and wisdom of one of the most influential women of the early twentieth century. Updated with a new foreword by Dana Greene, dean of Oxford College of Emory University, this intriguing spiritual portrait includes a brief memoir of Lucy Menzies, one of Underhill’s closest confidants, highlighting their remarkable relationship. This biography of Evelyn Underhill, one of the greatest spiritual thinkers of the early twentieth century, guides readers on a voyage through her life and a survey of her spiritual classics that would forever bring the Divine into the everyday for countless people. A passionate writer and teacher who wrote elegantly on mysticism, worship and devotional life, Evelyn Underhill urged the integration of personal spirituality and worldly action. This is the moving story of how she made her way toward spiritual maturity, from her early days of agnosticism to the years when her influence was felt throughout the world. An early believer that contemplative prayer is not just for monks and nuns but for anyone willing to undertake it, Underhill considered the study of modern science not as a threat to contemplation but rather an enhancement of it. Her many lectures and writings on mysticism and spirituality, including her classic Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness, inspired the many people touched by her unique passion to take on a spiritual life.

Demystifying the “Poet Laureate of Depression” Pleasure-loving, sarcastic, stubborn, determined, erotic, deeply sad--Jane Kenyon’s complexity and contradictions found expression in luminous poems that continue to attract a passionate following. Dana Greene draws on a wealth of personal correspondence and other newly available materials to delve into the origins, achievement, and legacy of Kenyon’s poetry and separate the artist’s life story from that of her husband, the award-winning poet Donald Hall. Impacted by relatives’ depression during her isolated childhood, Kenyon found poetry at college, where writers like Robert Bly encouraged her development. Her graduate school marriage to the middle-aged Hall and subsequent move to New Hampshire had an enormous impact on her life, moods, and creativity. Immersed in poetry, Kenyon wrote about women’s lives, nature, death, mystical experiences, and melancholy--becoming, in her own words, an “advocate of the inner life.” Her breakthrough in the 1980s brought acclaim as “a born poet” and appearances in the New Yorker and elsewhere. Yet her ongoing success and artistic growth exacerbated strains in her marriage and failed to stave off depressive episodes that sometimes left her non-functional. Refusing to live out the stereotype of the mad woman poet, Kenyon sought treatment and confronted her illness in her work and in public while redoubling her personal dedication to finding pleasure in every fleeting moment. Prestigious fellowships, high-profile events, residencies, and media interviews had propelled her career to new heights when leukemia cut her life short and left her husband the loving but flawed curator of her memory and legacy. Revelatory and insightful, Jane Kenyon offers the first full-length biography of the elusive poet and the unquiet life that shaped her art.

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Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) was one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century. Living most of her life in England, Underhill used writing as a vehicle to express her passionate search for the infinite life. Her philosophy transcends generations and her legacy as a pivotal figure in Christian mysticism endures today. In this comprehensive biography Dana Greene expertly captures Underhill's true essence. She gives us a thorough account of Underhill's development as a mystic and theologian and also explores beyond to the heart of who she was as a person. The connections Greene makes between Underhill's personal life and work create an in-depth and accurate portrait of this extraordinary woman.

Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Annual: Global Perspectives (CJLE) is a peer-reviewed annual publishing current interdisciplinary research on a wide array of vital international subjects related to criminal justice systems. We seek to publish: broad creative analyses of criminal justice systems or system components; articles and treatises on power, social theory, and the apparatuses of crime and punishment; comparative examinations; explorations of the intersection/s between criminal justice systems and other social, political, or economic structures; interdisciplinary and paradigm-challenging new work. Articles in CJLE take advantage of the broader perspective that annual publication provides by tackling large interpretative questions, offering synthetic analyses of major methodologies, or considering new theoretical approaches to criminal justice studies in the widest and most international sense.

In a time when Catholic women were expected to stay home and raise families, Maisie Ward decided she wanted to make a greater contribution to her faith. With her husband, Ward published original works by Catholic writers and translations of noted European Catholic theologians. Ward also wrote, lectured, travelled, and raised money for her causes. Greene's biography of this remarkable woman provides inspiration for the current generation of American Catholics.

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) was one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century. Living most of her life in England, Underhill used writing as a vehicle to express her passionate search for the infinite life. Her philosophy transcends generations and her legacy as a pivotal figure in Christian mysticism endures today. In this comprehensive biography Dana Greene expertly captures Underhill's true essence. She gives us a thorough account of Underhill's development as a mystic and theologian and also explores beyond to the heart of who she was as a person. The connections Greene makes between Underhill's personal life and work create an in-depth and accurate portrait of this extraordinary woman.

Kenneth Rexroth called Denise Levertov (1923-1997) "the most subtly skillful poet of her generation, the most profound, . . . and the most moving." Author of twenty-four volumes of poetry, four books of essays, and several translations, Levertov became a lauded and honored poet. Born in England, she published her first book of poems at age twenty-three, but it was not until she married and came to the United States in 1948 that she found her poetic voice, helped by the likes of William Carlos Williams, Robert Duncan, and Robert Creeley. Shortly before her death in 1997, the woman who claimed no country as home was nominated to be America's poet laureate. Levertov was the quintessential romantic. She wanted to live vividly, intensely, passionately, and on a grand scale. She wanted the persistence of Cezanne and the depth and generosity of Rilke. Once she acclimated herself to America, the dreamy lyric poetry of her early years gave way to the joy and wonder of ordinary life. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, her poems began to engage the issues of her times. Vehement and strident, her poetry of protest was both acclaimed and criticized. The end of both the Vietnam War and her marriage left her mentally fatigued and emotionally fragile, but gradually, over the span of a decade, she emerged with new energy. The crystalline and luminous poetry of her last years stands as final witness to a lifetime of searching for the mystery embedded in life itself. Through all the vagaries of life and art, her response was that of a "primary wonder." In this illuminating biography, Dana Greene examines Levertov's interviews, essays, and self-revelatory poetry to discern the conflict and torment she both endured and created in her attempts to deal with her own psyche, her relationships with family, friends, lovers, colleagues, and the times in which she lived. Denise Levertov: A Poet's Life is the first complete biography of Levertov, a woman who claimed she did not want a biography, insisting that it was her work that she hoped would endure. And yet she confessed that her poetry in its various forms--lyric, political, natural, and religious--derived from her life experience. Although a substantial body of criticism has established Levertov as a major poet of the later twentieth century, this volume represents the first attempt to set her poetry within the framework of her often tumultuous life.