Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Correspondence with John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California; also correspondence to and from Spencer MacCallum relating to Heath’s seminar, Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men, sponsored by the College

1959-1963             

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1678

Carbon from Heath to John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

October 7, 1959

 

Dear Dr. Davis:

 

I want to thank you most heartily for your kind and cordial letter of August 7^th. In these parlous times, it is rewarding indeed to have your recognition of my effort to uncover something of the almost hidden vast potentials towards an ideal society that lie in our non-political heritages from the past and our widening purely voluntary practices of today.

 

   I have delayed my reply to your letter largely because of uncertainty just when I could return. As it seems now, I can plan to leave here early in November and, with some stop-overs en route, arrive in California about November fifteenth. I shall be honored and delighted to visit and exchange ideas with you and your faculty and staff at any convenient time or times after that date.

 

   Your comparison of your college residence halls and their settings with medieval English inns and the Elizabethan theater is most interesting. It carries my mind further to the thought that the human community at all levels consists normally of separate exclusive and individual portions surrounded or being surrounded by a public and general portion (courtyard or village green) wherein services common to all (including entertainment) are performed or supplied. And even the plays themselves, by reason of their public and universal character, are a kind of public ministration to the private personalities whom, in common, they psychologically and esthetically serve. I can well appreciate your enthusiasm for making your residence hall courts into fit settings for presentations of the Shakespearean plays.

 

   To my mind, the services that are common and public to the society in general must in every community eventually be performed only upon those portions that are open and public to all. My own perhaps fondest vision — taking my cue from Sir Henry S. Maine — is of a time when not only the private services but the public and common services as well shall come under the common law of contract and consent voluntarily practiced and not coercively or politically imposed.

 

With my cordial good wishes,

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1801

Penned notes by Heath for a letter to a Dr. Davis (presumed to be John L. Davis, president, Chapman College, Orange, California), enclosing suggestions for a proposed letter to Jawaharlal Nehru with a gift copy of Citadel, Market and Altar

December 1959?

 

Dear Dr. Davis:

 

Out of your wonderful letter of the 15th just one point for the present — the matter of sending a book to J. Nehru of India. Men who are much in the public eye do not even see or acknowledge, much less read anything that comes to them unaccredited or from an unknown source. They are like the publishers who never read a manuscript from any author who is unknown. The ___________ Citadel, Market & Altar should be sent to Mr. Nehru with recommendation from someone who stands high in his knowledge or esteem. If I were such a person (a Schweitzer, for example) or even sponsored by such a person, I would write to Mr. Nehru somewhat as indicated by the draft enclosed.

 

NEHRU

 

Vast numbers of informed and intelligent people in America and in the world applaud your noble desire to lift up the masses of your people into richer and more abundant lives.

 

Many of us, however, do not believe that to do this there is any need to abolish the free-enterprise Capitalist system as it is practiced extensively, although imperfectly in the world of the West. On the contrary, we believe it is imperfectly practiced only because it is imperfectly understood.

 

The accompanying volume, Citadel, Market & Altar, herewith presented to you, is believed to set out the basic rationality and the high spiritual potentialities of the free and voluntary non-political system. It is presented to you in the hope that it may bring aid to your thought and more strength to your heart in your labors for your people and for mankind.

Sincerely,

 

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter to Heath at 312 Halesworth, Santa Ana, California, from

John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

January 25, 1960

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

When I got home I found that my wife had discarded the copies of The Christian prior to January 24th issue. I am sending you that issue, which has an article by John Norton Williams entitled “A Reasonable Religion,” which I believe covers much of the same ground you indicated you had read recently in an article by Mr. Alexander.

 

I think this article will indicate for you the hard-headed, common-sense view that has characterized our people from the time of Alexander Campbell.

It was good to have you on the campus last week and to have time for such a fine discussion with you.

Sincerely,

/s/ John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

Enc

 

______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2981

Typed letter to Heath from John L. Davis,

President, Chapman College, Orange, California

January 29, 1960

 

Dear Friend:

 

Thank you for letting me see the enclosed papers, which I have read with interest and profit. I marvel at your ability to cut to the heart of a thorny international problem and present your solution in such clear, simple language.

 

Mrs. Reeder has duplicated 25 copies of your “Solution for the Suez,” and you may pick them up on your next visit.

 

Sincerely,

/s/ John L. Davis

                        President

JLD/mr

Encs.

­­­­­­_______________________________________________________________  

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Copy of letter from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California, addressed to Heath at 312 Halesworth, Santa Ana, California, and Walter Knott

February 3, 1960

 

Dear Friends:

 

I enclose a paper from Gerald Barradas of San Leandro, California, which I believe will be of interest to each of you. I will welcome your reading this paper and making comments on your reactions to it.

 

Some weeks ago I visited Mr. Barradas in his home in San Leandro because I had become interested in some other papers that he had mailed out from time to time.

 

At least here we have an optimistic view of the future of free economy and a free society and also an optimistic view of the international developments of the next twenty years.

 

I will look forward eagerly to receiving your comments. Please return this paper with your reactions.

     Sincerely,

     John L. Davis

     President

JLD./mr

Enc.

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2987

Copy of letter from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, CA, to Dana Latham, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Washington, D.C.

March 11, 1960

 

Dear Mr. Latham:

 

Mr. Spencer Heath, whom I have known for the past year, informs me that his application for tax-exempt status for The Science of Society Foundation, Inc. has been denied. Mr. Heath is founder and president of the Foundation.

 

 In his letter explaining the basis for the denial, Mr. J. F. Worley, Chief, Exempt Organization Branch of the Internal Revenue Service, seems to base his decision on the fact that “publishing a book is not of itself” a project which fulfills requirements of Section 501 (c) (3) of the Code. Also that the prime activity of the Foundation “has been the promotion of the views of your Founder and President, Spencer Heath.”

 

I know little about the actual work of the Foundation, but I do know Mr. Heath and his book, Citadel, Market and Altar. He is a man of integrity and great intellectual power, whose knowledge of science and engineering leads him to depend on scientific methods and research for results. He is not a propagandist for his own views. He has visited classes, conducted seminars and delivered lectures on our own campus, and at all times, he gives full weight to the best scholarship and historical perspective in presenting his material.

His Foundation has presented several volumes of his work to our library and has made it possible for him to spend much time with our faculty and students. I believe he does this as a person dedicated to the search for truth and to the welfare of our free social order.

 

We remember with deep gratitude your many services to Chapman College and hope you are continuing to find your work in Washington challenging.

Sincerely,

                        /s/ John L. Davis

JLD/mr                  President

______________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter to Heath from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

April 6, 1960

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

I appreciate very much your generous invitation to visit you at

11 Waverly Place when I am in New York, and I will certainly call
you on my arrival. I have, however, decided to visit Pittsburgh first and will not get to New York City until Wednesday or Thursday, April 20 or 21.

 

You may expect a call from me on one of those days, or, perhaps, I may call you before I leave Pittsburgh.

Sincerely,

/s/John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

______________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter to Heath from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

April 28, 1960

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

I found such a ready response in Pittsburgh and had so many people to visit there that I decided not to go on to New York on this trip, since it would have been late Thursday before I could have arrived there. Accordingly, I doubled back to Indianapolis and Chicago and completed the week in those cities.

I am disappointed not to have had a chance to visit you in your New York apartment and to meet some of your friends there and also to discuss some of the important interests we have in common.

 

I expect to visit New York later and to spend an entire week there. You may be sure that I will contact you at that time.

Sincerely,

/s/ John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

______________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter to Spencer Heath MacCallum, 1800 Shelby, Seattle 2, Washington,

from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

February 16, 1961

 

Dear Mr. MacCallum:

 

It was a real privilege to get to know you and to learn of your plans for, as your grandfather puts it, “drawing another book out of Spencer Heath.” I will certainly be proud to have Chapman’s name associated with such a volume and want to assist in every way in its production. It would be an irreparable loss to our present society and to posterity for Mr. Heath to carry so many creative ideas with him to his grave. He also has a remarkable style in utterance which will be preserved by having him lecture to a group and recording his words.

 

I find that our small dining room will be available on Thursday, March 16, 23 and April 6. This is three consecutive Thursdays except that our Easter recess intervenes, and the kitchen is closed. This will, however, enable Mr. Heath to take care of his Pepperdine engagements without conflict.

 

All of this will be subject to approval of our administrative council, but I am confident they will find no schedule conflicts.

 

Our thinking as we parted last night was: That each seminar (I like that better then conference or institute) will convene at 4:30 p.m. Attendance will be limited to 60. (We can announce that reservations will be made on a first-come, first-served basis.) Mr. Heath will deliver a forty-minute lecture followed by discussion after a break. We will then have dinner and, without moving from the tables, will have a second lecture and discussion. The room will be available for the entire evening, but I think we should hold closely to a time schedule for the formal lecture and discussion — with an informal discussion after the seminar is dismissed if people are so inclined. Some always want to get away, and a session from 4:30 to 8:00 is as long as any group should stay together.

 

Mr. Heath will follow the six topics in his series, “The Christian Doctrine of Man.”

 

The College will install its sound amplifying equipment in the dining room if it is not in use elsewhere. If it is in use, we will lease additional equipment. You will lease the tape-recording equipment and have it installed. (We can do the leg work if you like, but I just want to be clear as to responsibility.)

Mrs. Manning will be responsible for invitations, announcements, mailing, etc., but all copy will be subject to your approval and to mine. If you like and if it would help, I will be glad to write a letter to be enclosed with the invitations (we could make them personal if we want the additional expense of putting them on an automatic typewriter at 25 cents per letter), giving my estimate of the significance of these seminars and emphasizing the fact that all who attend will be assisting in producing a volume which will be of enormous influence on our social order. We might suggest, if you agree, that the 60 participants will be listed in the foreword of the book.

 

Perhaps this is enough to summarize our thinking and to indicate what we need to do immediately. March 16 gives us very little time to get all this done.

 

As to a title for the series — how about “Ideas for an Emerging Society”? Others: “Spiritual Factors in Social Realities” and “The Evolving Free Society; Its Unique Function and Transcendent Powers,” or “Men and Their Organic Relationships.” These, as you can readily see, are suggestions gleaned from reviewers of Citadel, Market and Altar, and may suggest some­thing for you.

 

We will assume that seminar attendants will pay $6.00 for the three meals and custodial help involved and that you or Mr. Heath will underwrite all other expenses incurred. We will, of course, hold these to the minimum and subject to your approval.

If this seems worthy of pursuing, please let me have your reactions and suggestions at the earliest possible date.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

cc/Mr. Heath

Mrs. Manning

Dean Tade

Mrs. Cheverton

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Mailing to Spencer MacCallum, 1800 Shelby, Seattle, Washington, of form letter prepared by John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California, inviting the public to Heath’s forthcoming series of talks at the College.

March 11, 1961

 

Dear ___________:

 

Spencer Heath’s Citadel, Market and Altar has stimulated thought and excited comment throughout Europe and America. Roscoe Pound called it “a book of the first importance,” and thinkers as diverse as E. Merrill Root, Ruth M. Under­hill and William Ernest Hocking have testified to its impact.

 

Mr. Heath’s mind and brilliant thought belie his 85 years, and those who know the incisive imagery of his conversation, sparkling wit and keen powers of analysis have lamented the fact that time will destroy so much which his book does not preserve. His grandson, Spencer Heath MacCallum, has been especially concerned with “drawing another book” out of his grandfather (who loves conver­sation and lecturing but hates writing), and we are inviting you to participate in a project which we believe will produce another book of real significance for our free social order.

 

In the guest dining room of the College on March l6, March 23 and April 6, we invite you and others whom you may nominate to share in a seminar on “Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men.” Each session will begin promptly at 4:30 p.m. We will have a forty-minute lecture by Mr. Heath, followed by twenty minutes of discussion. After a brief free period, dinner will be served at 6 o’clock, followed by another lecture and discussion period of the same length. Each meeting will adjourn promptly at 8:00 p.m.

 

Through sound equipment which Radio Station KWIZ will supply, Mr. Heath’s lec­tures will be recorded, and Spencer Heath MacCallum will edit these materials during the summer months. The book should, therefore, appear in the fall of 1961. Topics to be discussed will include: The Free Community; Property and Its Productive Administration; Society, the Crown of Creation; The Hidden Christ in the Organic Community, etc.

 

We enclose a card for your use in making a reservation. The room will accommo­date only 60 persons, and we will accept reservations on a first-come, first-served basis. The $6.00 fee, of course, simply reimburses the College for meals and necessary expense. Mr. Heath is providing for all other expenses of the seminar and will underwrite publication of the book.

                          Sincerely yours,

                          /s/ John L. Davis

JLD/mr

Enc.

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter from Heath at 462 West Hall, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California,

to John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

May 4, 1961

 

Dear Dr. Davis:

 

      As promised you by telephone today, I enclose herewith the key to my apartment at 11 Waverly Place, New York City. I hope you will enjoy occupying it.

 

      If you use the telephone for calls outside of the building, please keep in mind that there is no unlimited service in New York. All completed local calls are measured and charged for (15 cents for each three minutes) in the same manner as long distance calls.

 

      Please communicate with Miss Gene Higgins in Apartment 11M when you arrive and convey to her my very best wishes and regards.

 

      When you return from New York, please mail the key back to me, using the enclosed stamped envelope self-addressed to me at 312 Halesworth Street, Santa Ana, California.

 

      Wishing you and Mrs. Davis, if she goes with you, a very happy and prosperous visit in New York, I am,

 

Cordially yours,

 

Spencer Heath

 

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter to Heath from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

May 8, 1961

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

I received this morning (Saturday) your letter and the enclosed key. I am deeply grateful to you for the courtesy of allowing me to use your apartment in New York City, and will return the key to you as soon as I return about May 18.

 

I am glad to be informed in your letter about the policy of the New York telephone service. This means that I owe you for a considerable number of local telephone calls which I did not understand were being charged as long distance calls are. I will appreciate it very much if you will let me know the sum that is involved, and I will reimburse you at once. I am chagrined that I did not inquire about telephone service, and will see to it that the matter is taken care of this time without troubling you about it.

I will certainly try to see Miss Higgins, and I know she will be glad to hear about you and to know how well you are getting along.

 

Sincerely,

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Penned note to Heath from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

May 11, 1961

 

Dear Spencer Heath:

 

Have appreciated so much use of your apartment Sunday to Thursday. It has greatly aided my efforts for Chapman College and I thank you for the College and for myself.

 

Miss Higgins is ill and I have talked to her only by phone. A virus cold condition plus the smog effects, I think. She was distressed that she had run out of money for laundry but I put her mind at ease on that.

I took one bag to the laundry man on Monday — 7 sheets, 4 pillow cases, and some towels and wash cloths. I am taking another this morning consisting of the linen I used — 2 pillow cases, 2 sheets, 1 large and 1 small towel. I paid cash for all of the above, so do not allow the laundry man to charge you again.

 

They would not accept responsibility for the phone calls — I made only five — they say they can only be paid via your bill. Perhaps you will let me send you a check when I get home to take care of these and the 20 or so calls I made last year? Hope you will accept it for I regret the oversight.

 

Leave now for uptown and then Pittsburg.

 

John L. Davis

 

________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Christmas card to Heath from President and Mrs. John L. Davis,

Chapman College, Orange, California

December 1961

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

   Glad to learn that you are back in California — where we now think you belong!

 

   Have read carefully your grandson’s book and want to read it again and will then write him my estimate. It’s an excellent piece of work and exceedingly well written and managed. People like Dr. _____ of the Irvine Company and other developers will profit greatly from this work.

 

   Am looking forward to seeing you.

 

   May God be near you always, but especially at Christmas.

 

                                      J.L.D.

 

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter to Heath at Rutherford House, Winchester, Virginia, from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California,

April 16, 1962

 

Dear Spencer Heath:

 

I called “312” to invite you to have lunch with me at the Greenbrier only to learn that you had taken off for the East. I will miss the stimulating conversations we had, but will always feel a deep sense of gratitude to you for enriching my life and mind.

 

More than anyone I have met or read, you are able to pierce through the cloak of the material and temporal in which we seem to live and move and have our being and reveal the true character of the spiritual reality which sustains, projects, and endlessly creates the visible world. More than anyone else, too, you show that the most mundane aspects of the economic and political forces have deep spiritual and moral implications.

We do hope you will return to us and resume the significant role you have been playing here — that of philosopher, teacher, spiritual guide and friend. Truly, you have brought new hope and expectation into our lives.

Mrs. Manning has had a bout with pneumonia since you left, but is better now. Mrs. Krone is seriously ill, also.

 

I understand that Spencer MacCallum plans to visit us soon. I certainly hope so for he is a young man who will, I confidently predict, assume an increasingly significant place in the world of economic thought and scholarship. His thesis is an excellent one, and will make a secure reputation for him when it is published.

 

When I last saw you at lunch at the Penthouse, you were not feeling at all well. I hope the trip to old familiar haunts has helped and that April in Virginia and Maryland will lift your spirits. May God bless you and sustain you until we see you again.

 

Sincerely,

/s/ John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

­­­_______________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter to Heath c/o Spencer MacCallum, Waterford Inn, Waterford, Virginia, from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

August 27, 1962

 

My Dear Friend:

 

It seems many ages ago since I last lunched with you at the Executives Club, and I hope devoutly that this finds you feeling much better now. On that occasion, perhaps you will recall, you were too ill and too disturbed to eat anything except a bowl of soup which you allowed to grow cold before you could finish it. Tour daughters were in Europe, and Spencer MacCallum was on the East Coast, and you had suddenly be­gun to feel that, contrary to most modern technology, this old world is still a big place so far as separating us from those we love is concerned.

 

Now you are in the midst of those you yearned to have near you, and I hope your health and digestion have improved greatly. We do miss you here very much. Something irreplaceable left the area when you flew East. As you know, this is a bustling, exploding area of doers who neither have time nor motivation to become thinkers. You can search far and wide in this social ferment and scarcely ever find a new, creative, profound idea, and that was exactly what you were supplying for us in conversation, addresses, newspaper articles and through your great book, Citadel, Market and Altar.

You were depressed, during that last luncheon with me, by the thought that your ideas had not found sufficiently wide acceptance nor had you drawn to you the circle of real thinkers who could insure the survival and implementation of your thought. I believe firmly, how­ever, that your time of realization is still to come.

 

Last night I read, to my surprise, that shoes for the right and left feet were not made until the time of our Civil War when Union soldiers first were issued them. Moreover, even then there were only two widths – wide and narrow. Now, if it takes thousands of years for man to adopt such a simple concept as the need for a right and left shoe to be built on different lasts, it obviously will take him many gener­ations to overhaul economic and social concepts such as you present.

 

Here a passage in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” comes to mind:

 

I exist as I am, that is enough,

If no other in the world be aware, I sit content,

And if each and all be aware, I sit content.

One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself,

And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.

My foothold is tenoned and mortised in granite,

I laugh at what you call dissolution,

And I know the amplitude of time.

 

We don’t need to agree with his extravagant “ten thousand or ten million years,” but his basic thought is absolutely sure. A man with a great idea who has found the medium for expression of that idea and who dedi­cates himself and all he has to its propagation does indeed have a foot­hold that is mortised in granite. And no man who has touched my own life better exemplifies this dedication to ideas and ideals than yourself.

I do hope this letter reaches you and brings you the assurance that your ideas are not dead in Southern California. We remember you with deep affection and appreciation,

Sincerely yours,

/s/ John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3075

Letter from John L. Davis to Spencer MacCallum,

c/o Waterford Inn, Waterford, Virginia

August 27, 1962

 

Dear Spencer:

 

Mrs. Manning reports that I may reach you at this address and that you have made wonderful progress through the summer in editing the recorded addresses your grandfather made here at the College. This is most gratifying news, and I am writing to assure you not only of my interest but of my eagerness to be of any service in insuring that this volume from Mr. Heath’s great mind and experience will be published. Please keep me informed of developments and tell me when and how I can be of service to you.

 

I enclose a letter addressed to Mr. Heath. I will leave entirely to your judgment whether or not you wish to read it to him — or if he is able to read it for himself — to place it in his hands. If his state of health would lead him to be disturbed or upset by a letter from me, do not hesitate to destroy the enclosed. If on the contrary, you think a word from one who sincerely appreciates your grandfather’s greatness as a man and philosopher and writer might please him, then use it as you think best.

 

We do hope you return to California. Our guest house will always be open to you.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

Enc.

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2947

Copy of letter to Spencer MacCallum at Gamma Alpha House, University of Chicago, 5021 S. University, Chicago, Illinois, from John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

November 13, 1962

 

Dear Spencer:

 

I appreciate receiving page 91 which is to be inserted in the manuscript of your grandfather’s book, and will see that it is properly placed therein as soon as I receive the manuscript back from The Christian Century press.

 

 I appreciated more than I can say my visit with you in Chicago and the fine work you have done in editing the tape recordings of your grandfather’s addresses. I think you have done a magnificent job; and in longer retrospect now, I find it even more impressive than my first reading of it.

 

 In the meantime, I have had a very cordial letter from Dr. Harper at Wabash College, who was raising a number of questions concerning it, and I was able to answer in very sincere and positive terms. He promises to come to see me sometime this year, and we can discuss it further.

 

 Of course I am eager to get the manuscript back and give it another reading. I can then be more specific in any critical observations I might make.

Sincerely

/s/ John L. Davis

President

JLD/mr

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2945

Penned letter from Spencer MacCallum at Waterford, Virginia to George Allen, appears never to have been sent

October 20, 1963

 

Dear George Allen,

 

As you have possibly already heard, my grandfather, Spencer Heath, passed away on Sunday afternoon, October 6th, after a year and a half of illness. I am writing a number of his friends, and am sure he would have wanted you to be included. He thought a great deal of you and valued your friendship.

 

 I have never expressed my own appreciation, in particular, for the help you gave in reading the series of talks he gave at Chapman College in 1961. You’ll be interested to know that these have been transcribed and edited and are in preparation as a second book of my grandfather’s to be published, hopefully, in the coming year. I am in process of transcribing some material from other tapes which touch in places on the religious theme, to make the book somewhat larger than just the Chapman talks. My grandfather never titled the book, and I was for a long time at a loss. On the weekend that he died, what seemed to me to be an appropriate title occurred to me, and I’m only sorry there wasn’t an opportunity to tell him. It’s provisionally titled, Song and Work of God. One of the main themes in the talks was the integration of the inspirational side of man’s life and the economic — the song with the work. The words are taken from the last line of my grandfather’s sonnet. He would have liked that.

 

 I understand you are now in Hollywood. I’m looking forward to being in the Los Angeles area next June and would certainly like to look you up. In the meantime, I hope that all things are well with you and your projects are flourishing.

 

Sincerely,

Spencer Heath MacCallum

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2944

Penned, unsigned note to Heath from Spencer MacCallum

1962?

 

Al Lowi is sure getting a lot out of reading your Chapman talks on Christianity! We were talking about what might be a good title for them when they are published, and Al suggested, “THE ECONOMY OF THE SPIRIT.” How’s that?

 

 And as a sub-title on the inside:

 

“Six Extemporary Talks and Discussions on

the Vision of Christ in Modern Capitalism”

____________________________________________________________________________

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2942

Carbon of letter from Spencer MacCallum, 5621 University Avenue, Chicago 37, Illinois, to John L. Davis, President, Chapman College, Orange, California

April 18, 1965

 

Dear Dr. Davis

 

This is first of all to apologize for the lapse of communication which I’m afraid I really let go beyond bounds. I was certainly pleased to get your letter and to know that your interest is still very much alive for finding some means of publishing the talks. I am in touch with my mother to try to find out if there might be some way my grandfather could help to finance it. As I believe I told you, the U.S. Trust Company of New York has been paying the bills that come to him for his personal care, but I don’t know if this could be extended to other costs if he were unable to authorize it in writing himself. My mother is pursuing this now with Mr. E. p. Brown, of the Trust Company, who has handled my grand­father’s trust account for many years, and she should be able to tell us something soon. One way or another, I surely hope to see this in published form before long, and with full credit to Chapman College.

 

Schoolwork has been heavier than I anticipated in the fall when I looked forward to doing some additional editing of the talks in the interim vacations. Gosh, I didn’t even look at them. But in June, I’m looking forward to giving a paper at Claremont Men’s College for their Insti­tute on Freedom and Competitive Enterprise (June 12-22), and certainly would like to get together with you then and consider what the possibilities are and make some concrete plans about publishing the talks. I remember your offer some time ago about staying at the Guest House at Chapman while working on the transcripts, and that certainly sounds attractive for the latter part of this June. Would this be practical for you?

 

Many thanks for your steadfastness and continued encourage­ment.

 

Sincerely,

 

Spencer H. MacCallum

 

CC:  Mrs. Heath MacCallum, Waterford, Virginia

Irvan T. O’Connell, Jr., Claremont Men’s College

Dr. F. A. Harper, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana

 

____________________________________________________________

 
Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2943

Carbon of letter from Spencer MacCallum at 5621 University Avenue, Chicago 37, Illinois, to Shirley Taft (later changed name to Sara Taft)

October 31, 1963

Dear Shirley Taft,

Thanks so much for your fine letter which I found here this morning on getting back from Virginia.

What do you think of this title for the talks — eliminate the present title and subtitle completely and call them simply, Song and Work of God. The words are taken from the last line of my grandfather’s sonnet to Beauty. He would have liked that. But it seems specially appropriate since a main theme of the talks is the integration of the inspirational side of man’s life and the economic — the song with the work.

 

 In your letter you stressed the integration of the spiritual and the scientific. I love your charac­terization of science as precision, as opposed to poetry. Would you say it is science which helps bridge the song and the work, the dream and its realization — its ‘pure’ aspect lying in the domain of the inspirational and its ‘applied’ aspect being the engineering (social, i.e. constitutionalism, as well as physical) of the work? Certainly the spiritual and the scientific are united in the work of creation.

 

 I think it was his identification of ultimate reality as events and happenings rather than stasis or being, that enabled my grandfather to synthesize so well the different aspects of life. Life is events, happen­ings. Events must always eventuate in other events, and it’s the possibility of directing the quality of these transformations that presents man with the opportunity for his uniquely human (divine) role. He partakes in­creasingly of the prime attributes of divinity, which are creativity and immortality, as he acts under the influence (in-flowing) of the Spirit, the inspiration of Beauty, and by the exercise of his reason to find out God’s mind, the how of things.

 Your perception this summer that my grandfather seems to use the word, “Christ,” not interchangeably with “Jesus” but to stand for the way, the how of things, was illuminating to me. This equating Christ with the natural law fits in nicely with Joseph’s /Galambos/ saying one time this sum­mer that, to him, God is Natural Law.

 In writing notes to many of my grandfathers friends last week so that they’d know and not be wondering, I men­tioned the manuscript to Henry Regnery, and he wrote back that he’d like to see it when it’s ready. I’ve no idea he would want to take it on, but if he should, what would you think? There’s something to be said for the facilities of a large organization. But enthusiasm of a publisher counts for a lot, and in the long run perhaps more. Well no use in wondering about that, I don’t suppose, until we have actual offers to consider, and the manuscript isn’t ready yet. On that last point, I’m thinking whether it wouldn’t be good to include in the volume the short address, “The Practice of Christian Freedom,” which has never been published. Also it would seem appropriate to repro­duce his sonnet at the close of the book, possibly noting it in the table of contents by the single word, “Epitaph,” with a short explanation where the sonnet appears in the text that he had asked that this be used as his epitaph. The last line of the sonnet echoes the title of the book and would give it a fine closing.

 Thanks again for your fine letter, and with very best wishes to you and Roy,

 

Sincerely,

Spencer MacCallum

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2940

Letter to Heath, Waterford, Virginia, from Spencer MacCallum,

Apt 11-C, 11 Waverly Place, New York City 3

July 17, 1962

 

Dear Popdaddy:

 

When are you going to be well and up and around again, anyway?? People are asking about you and wondering when they’ll be seeing you up here in New York again. Greta Bergquist phoned the other day and hoped to see you if you were here. Bob Smith and Ed Facey are involved in some kind of an ideological free-for-all up at Irvington and would like you to be here for them to stop in and talk to about it when they come in to N.Y.U. several nights a week. They were preaching a purer form of libertarianism in some summer sessions at F.E.E. where there were a number of students visiting from other countries — and apparently with some success. But as a result, they were asked to leave F.E.E. and not come back on the property — charged with corrupting the youth. F.E.E. is waving the red-hot brand of “Anarchy” about, and I’m just drafting another letter to Opitz, following up on our earlier exchange, trying to prevent you and me from being branded with that iron. I think it’s unfortunate that so many people are finding that position attractive, and would certainly like to convert some of these younger kids from “Anarchism” to “Alternativism.” Robert Hamoway, one of the editors of the “New Individualist Review” that you liked so much, is here in New York this summer and has said to Bob Smith that he wants to meet me while he’s here and get to know more about the positive approach. Hamoway’s just finishing his Doctorate, though I think he’s a couple of years younger than I.

 

 Popdaddy, I’ve scheduled a couple of hours every morning to work on editing your Chapman College talks for Dr. Davis. Then I go to the Library with a sack lunch and work on my own Proprietary Community project until the Library closes at 9:45 at night. Then I walk down from the Library to the apartment here, which gives me enough exercise for the day. This has been a fine, workable schedule — and I’ve got a lot done — except for one thing! I get absorbed in your Chapman College talks and don’t get away to the Library until afternoon some days. And on Sunday, I worked the whole day on the Chapman material and didn’t get up to the Library finally until after supper! Working with all this recorded material, I’m getting to know more about the tricks and habits of your speech and grammar than I’ll bet you ever guessed at! And it’s coming out fine, though about as slow as molasses, since I’m trying to keep your style and content absolutely intact. I very seldom supply words of transition. The creativeness comes almost entirely in selecting and arranging. Here’s the progress report: The typescript, or clear copy of the six tapes is finished, and the first of the six talks is finished the preliminary editing. It comes to 30 pages alone with the discussion from the floor, so you see there’s plenty of material for a new little book! I’m half way through the first editing of the second talk now. I never realized it would be so much work. But I’m tremendously enthused about it. No wonder Dr. Davis kept after me these two years to do this job. You’ll be surprised when you see it how smooth your talks become with just some judicious trimming out of surplussage. As with most pruning, the trouble usually lies with cutting too little. But that can always be remedied later if it should need to be. In my first editing through the talks, I’m mostly just cutting out all the dead wood so we can see where we are. Well I’m sure I’ve talked enough about this; you^’ll start getting qualms about what’s hap­pening to your baby! Well I can guarantee you’ll be impressed, as I am, when you see it.

 

 Do you remember that a man, Erwin Phillips, wrote you a note from New York about your Christmas card, “The Gospel in Our Time,” and you sent it on to me to answer or do whatever seemed best about it? I had a long visit with him one evening a week ago and got quite an education in anthroposophy. I think I had absorbed enough of the principles of it from you at various times that I must have seemed an apt pupil. Mr. Phillips lives in a very fine old people’s home (Jewish I think) uptown and carries on a lot of writing for anthroposophical papers and correspondence from there. He carries on from there the way you used to from the apartment here.

 

 I must quit this now and get up to the Library for today. I^’ve been reading in a lot of different areas, all touching in one way or another on the question of land, and am getting a much wider world picture of the whole subject of land tenure than I’ve ever had before.