With the growing impact of the war in Vietnam, he became active in the US peace movement. He would later write an acclaimed biography of Dorothy Day, All is grace. Jim had a widespread audience through his many books and lecture tours.įollowing his reception into the Catholic Church in 1960, he worked with the Catholic Worker Movement in New York City alongside the redoubtable Dorothy Day, editing the movement's news sheet The Catholic Worker. Little did I know then that we were starting a corresponding friendship that would span nearly 30 years. Later, I e-mailed Jim via his US publisher and he responded. When I got back to the car, I found it had been signed by the author. "Will this do?"įor £2 he sold me Forest's book, A pictorial biography of Thomas Merton. His hand went to the bottom of a stack of books on a nearby table and pulled out a book. Opening the door, I called out to the owner "Have you any books about the American monk, Thomas Merton?" Running back to the car late on a Saturday afternoon in a bitter cold January dusk, I came to the bookshop. I first met Jim Forest through a second-hand bookshop in Brighton, England. Within a few days of each other two resonant voices have been lost - that of Christian writer Jim Forest, who died this past January 13, and that of the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who died on January 22.
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