A report on Monsignor Roderick Strange's talk at the Newman Association AGM on his book John Henry Newman, A Portrait in Letters (OUP) — a 600-page distillation of Newman's vast correspondence filling 32 published volumes.
Monsignor Roderick Strange at Friends' House
Following lunch at Friends' House after the AGM members were entertained by a talk on Newman's letters. This was given by Monsignor Roderick Strange who has distilled down the Blessed John Henry's huge output, filling 32 published volumes, into one 600-page book which he has entitled John Henry Newman, A Portrait in Letters (OUP).
He said that it was hard for us, living in a time when letters have been replaced by emails and blogs, to realise the significance such postal communications had in Victorian England – when Newman was, for instance, writing controversial letters to Charles Kingsley and others. After all, the Penny Post was launched in 1840, when Newman was in his late 30s, and at that time some big towns had three posts a day so, Mgr Strange said, "you could have an answer back the same evening".
He said that it was not possible to present a comprehensive life story through a limited choice of letters but he wished to create a personal depiction of the great churchman. He rejected the title of "Selected Letters" and eventually opted instead for "A Portrait in Letters". He wished to provide a sense of the personality of the letter writer. There were letters included to family and friends, biographical and humorous letters but also terse letters laced with anger and sarcasm. He found references to Newman spending time burning letters.
"Also, I included famous letters, important letters," such as to Kingsley and the notable letter to Bishop William Ullathorne in 1870 on papal infallibility at the time of the First Vatican Council, supposed to be a private letter but leaked into the public domain. "I hope that a more rounded picture of the individual does emerge," said Mgr Strange. He had set the letters out in chronological chapters, reflecting the major phases of Newman's life, but he had also taken particular care to reflect different aspects of his personality.
"Newman was a formidable letter writer," he said. "Have I read them all? Well, I've been through them all. I over-selected at first, so then I had to whittle the selection down." Roderick Strange has written two previous books on Newman and he said that the latest compilation came out of studies that he undertook after a request from the Oxford University Press in 2009 when he was serving as Rector of Beda College. Earlier he was for a time Catholic Chaplain at Oxford University. Currently, after leaving Beda College in 2015, he is attached to the University of Roehampton.
John Henry Newman: A Portrait in Letters, edited by Roderick Strange (OUP)
Barry Riley