You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
A well-written monograph is a scholar's trove. As a literary form, it is an extension of a learned essay or treatise on a single concept or person. By design it represents a specific, succinct, thoroughly documented exploration into a relatively small area within a particular field of study. Such a work is often printed privately as a pamphlet or short book for a specified audience. Sanford Gifford's Emmanuel Movement is one of the best monographs that I have ever read.
If this book were judged by its cover, however, there would be few readers. The dust jacket is clueless except for its subtitle. Two small black and white photographs decorate the front cover and the back is blank except for an ISBN code. This lack of type is unusual because most publishers use the back cover for promotion. Naturally, there are exceptions to this practice—particularly museum catalogues—but blank slates are contrary to the world of print.
This tabula rasa titillated my imagination and I wondered what sort of comments might have filled the book jacket's back cover. Three possibilities became clear to me when I finished reading the monograph: 1) a superlative account of an unusual intersection of religion and medicine in the early 20th century; 2) an invaluable resource for those who are interested in the genesis of group psychotherapy and the antecedents of AA, as well as other self-help groups; and 3) a carefully researched biography of Elwood Worcester, a forerunner of the Pastoral Psychology Movement.
Gifford's monograph is actually a biographical portrait of the life and times of The Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester, the controversial Rector of Emmanuel Church, Boston, 1904-1929. Worcester