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Carl Seaburg:

Minister, Scholar, and Poet of Lyrical Unitarian Universalism

by Alan Seaberg

His question was  “Is it not our business to be artists of the spirit?”  His vision was  “one united world, one cooperating human race, one enriching love, one common religious impulse."  His faith was “a lyrical Universalism.”  So observed Charles A. Howe in his entry on Carl in the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.  He implemented this faith, as his honorary degree citation from Meadville/Lombard Theological School declared, with “courage, compassion, humor, and service.”  His ministry, the citation further stated, was “a model for what it might mean to be a minister to that greater fellowship of liberal religion that unites many people around the world.”

Carl and I were born in Medford, Massachusetts, where our mother and father, Eva and Henry, a housewife and an assistant to the vice president for sales of a Boston wholesale coal and coke firm, had settled after their marriage in 1921.  Our grandparents were ordinary working people–laundress, housewife, laborer, waiter, and tailor–who had immigrated in the 1880’s and the early 1890’s to Boston from Sweden, England, and Prince Edward Island. 

Both of us were educated in Medford, first in the public schools and then at Tufts University.  Here Carl majored in history, music, and religion; I in literature and religion.  He received his B.A. in 1945 and his B.D. in 1947; I received mine in 1954 and 1957.

We were both ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry.  Carl went on to serve churches in North Montpelier, Vermont, East Boston, Massachusetts; Norway, Maine; then, from 1971 until his retirement in 1985, he was Director of Information and Archivist for the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston.  My working life, after serving a Boston church, was as Curator of Manuscripts and Archivist at the Harvard Divinity School.  During almost all of these decades we lived in Medford, only a few streets away from one other.

Associated with his ministry were the religious anthologies he edited as well as the hymns he composed, several of which are in the current Unitarian Universalist hymnbook, Singing the Living Tradition.  One of the hymns, “Be That Guide,” was originally written for my ordination.  His most familiar, “Rank By Rank Again We Stand,” proclaims “Though the path be hard and long, / Still we strive in expectation, / Join we now their ageless song, / One with them in aspiration.”

His anthologies, which were immensely popular, and still are, include Great Occasions: Readings for the Celebration of Birth, Coming-of-Age, Marriage, and Death; Celebrating Christmas; The Communion Book; and Celebrating Spring and Easter (edited with his ministerial colleague Mark Harris).  The latter anthology was finished just before his death in 1998, and I published it for him through my small press.  All the proceeds went into the scholarship in his name established by the family and his friends at the Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.

In 1990 he gave the Minns Lectures—published as Inventing a Ministry—at Harvard Divinity School.  Their focus was the life of his friend, Charles Vickery, who was a gay Unitarian Universalist minister—when one did not come out of the closet.  He was also a field worker for the Universalist Service Committee, rescuing displaced young people in postwar Germany and later in charge of volunteer programs for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.  Carl’s point was that we each make our own practical ministry.

The Meadville/Lombard Theological School, a Unitarian Universalist institution, gave Carl the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1991.  It was in recognition of his dedication “to that greater fellowship of liberal religion that unites many people around the globe” and for his anthologies “that continue to be consulted on a daily basis by hundreds of our colleagues and parishioners.”

While Carl never married, he did have a strong and effective family and extended family.  His attention to them all is exemplified by his more than thirty years of daily care for Aunt Peachie—the matriarch of our family—who lived the last of her life with the pain of arthritis and in blindness.  He got her meals, did her washing, and made sure she always had ‘talking” books at hand.  He also opened their house to his friends and visiting ministers, which gave her a life far beyond what she could have had alone.  Amazingly, she soon charmed all who came to the house.  Here also, for Carl was the family chef, we celebrated birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

For Aunt Peachie, however, living with Carl had one problem: his library of 13,000 books, many of them in his study above her chair in the living room.  She worried for decades that the house was sinking and that one day the books would suddenly come to visit her. They never did, yet that library was available to all of us and covered many fields of human knowledge, especially Western history, English and French literature, twentieth century American and European poetry, art, modern scientific studies, philosophy, psychology, and of course, religion.  Within these broad categories he had several extensive collections on individuals—John Keats, Andre Gide, John Dewey—and on subjects—Boston history and gender issues—that particularly related to his ongoing writing projects.  His was the best and most useful personal library I ever encountered, and just as vital, he had a knack of introducing me to books that made my mind and abilities act more effectively.

Lastly, it was Carl who discovered our “other” home, up a dirt road, next to Roaring Brook and Pulpit Mountain, in Green River, Vermont.  Here he had a small log cabin and my family a simple elderly farm house.  The summers we all worked and lived there are summers wondrous and sweet, filled with the juice of the blackberries we picked each August to make blackberry slump.

Then there were his books written on history.  They are what will survive the knowledge of his daily activities and thoughts.

The first was Boston Observed.  It is a popular and lavishly illustrated history of Boston, dedicated to his immigrant grandparents.  Its focus is not the upper classes and a few favored sections of the city, but a literary and broad-gauged approach to the whole of Greater Boston, and its vibrant and colorful inhabitants.  Next was the Merchant Prince of Boston, a biography of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, which he wrote with Stanley Paterson, his friend since the second grade.  Perkins was one of the community’s moist successful merchants during the antebellum era.  His fleet of ships was active in the China and Dutch East Indies trade.  He was also an important philanthropist and Federalist leader.  This book was the 26^th volume in the Harvard Studies in Business History.

For the 350^th anniversary of the founding of Medford in 1980 he and I wrote Medford on the Mystic.  Published by the Medford Historical, it tells the story, with hundreds of contemporary black and white photographs, of our birth city, which was well known for its nineteenth century shipyards and its clipper ships built for the China trade, for its extensive brickyards, and its world-famous Old Medford Rum.

Then came a profusely illustrated history of Nahant, Massachusetts, amusingly entitled Nahant on the Rocks, where in the last century many wealthy Bostonians maintained summer houses.  This he also wrote with Stanley.

Finally there was The Incredible Ditch, our bicentennial history of the Middlesex Canal (1793-1852).  The canal, in part the idea of Medford business leaders, ran through the town, as it was then, on its way from Charlestown to Middlesex Village (Lowell) and the Merrimack River.  It opened up central New Hampshire, Vermont and the Merrimack Valley in northeastern Massachusetts to trade with Boston and was the most important of the early major transportation canals in the United States.

There was a world of difference between the way we worked together on the Medford book, which was our first effort at collaboration, and the canal book.   For both projects it was Carl who devised the basic structures and the theme development.  In Medford he assigned me chapters and later would review my work and revise it as necessary.  I did not attempt that for his chapters.  In the canal book we followed the same approach but now I had become more confident and so criticized his chapters as he did mine.  I remember how surprised he reacted when I literally savaged his first draft of chapter one.  He put it aside for a month and then he re-wrote it—generally along the line of my suggestions.  That was just one of the many times I was proud of him.

At the time of his death he was working on eleven additional books including a long poem—for both of us are poets—dealing with the Lewis and Clark overland expedition to the Pacific Ocean.  Although incomplete it is a wonderful poem – probably among his best – and it was published in 2008 as a part of the eBook To the Western Ocean The Anne Miniver Reader 2008.  Other projects dealt with the moral folly of capital punishment and a biographical manuscript on John Keats, one of our favorite poets.  Chief among these unfinished volumes was a study of the Tudors of Boston, especially of Frederic Tudor, popularly called Boston and New England’s Ice King because he had his fortune by being the first to transport and sell ice from New England ponds and lakes – especially from Fresh Pond in Cambridge – to Havana, the West Indies, India, and the southern coastal regions of North America.  Its publication became another collaboration between us for it was left to me to edit the volume and see to its publication by the Massachusetts Historical Society.  They issued it as a paperback in 2003 as The Ice King Frederic Tudor and His Circle.

In tribute to his life and accomplishment, therefore, I dedicated to him my study - Cambridge on the Charles – which is a history of that city patterned after our history of Medford.

Our lives and actions were intertwined and bound up for sixty-six years.  If I began with the simple admiration of a younger brother for an older brother, we soon became equals.  That was one of the wonderful aspects of the relationship.  He once joked that while there were ten years between his birth and of the “twins,” for my sister and I were born minutes apart, we were really triplets.  He would then add that it was unfortunate for mother that Nancy and I were so slow in arriving.

But you know, it is not a bad image – the imagine of the triplets - for the relationship that we were able to build from our individual independence, humor, common endeavors, shared enthusiasms, differences, and gentleness—especially toward each other.  Over the years we came to listen and to teach one another, and that was the best part of Nancy, Carl, and Alan.

Bibliography

BOOKS 

Adin Ballou.  Thesis for his Bachelor of Sacred Theology, School of Religion, Tufts College, 1945.

1799-1949: First Universalist Church, Norway, Maine.  With Carrie Tucker.  Norway, Me.: Advertiser-Democrat, 1949.

The Voyage and other poems.  Boston: Meeting House Press, 1961.

Uncle Goose.  Rhymes for Nephews and Nieces by a Couple of Uncles.  With Illustrations and Script by Robert C. Swain.  Medford: Zebra Press, 1963.  [Reprinted 1965]

Bombing Concrete.  Art by Ted Williams.  Medford: Zebra Press, 1967.

Great Occasions: Readings for the Celebration of Birth, Coming-of-Age, Marriage, and Death.  Ed. by Carl Seaburg.  Boston: Beacon, 1968.  [Many printings]

Boston Observed.  Boston: Beacon, 1971.

Merchant Prince of Boston, Colonel T. H. Perkins, 1764-1854. With Stanley C. Paterson.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971.

Dojin Means All People: The Universalist Mission to Japan, 1890-1942, Boston: Universalist Historical Society, 1978. 

Dojin Means All People. Japanese Edition, Tokyo: Dojin Kirisuto Kyokin, 1980.

Medford on the Mystic.  With Alan Seaburg.  Medford: Medford Historical Society, 1980.

Celebrating Christmas.  An Anthology.  Ed. by Carl Seaburg, Boston: Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, 1983. Reprinted May 2004.

Nahant on the Rocks.  With Stanley C. Paterson.  Nahant: Nahant Historical Society, 1991.

Inventing a Ministry.  Four Reflections on the Life of a Colleague.  Charles Vickery, 1920-1972.  Boston: Minns Lectureship Committee, 1992.

The Communion Book.  Ed. by Carl Seaburg.  Boston: Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, 1993. 

The Incredible Ditch.  A Bicentennial History of the Middlesex Canal.  With Alan Seaburg and Tom Dahill.  Cambridge: Anne Miniver Press for the Medford Historical Society, 1997.

Celebrating Easter and Spring.  Ed. by Carl Seaburg.  With Mark Harris.  Cambridge: Anne Miniver Press, 2000. Reprinted May 2002.

The Ice King Frederic Tudor and His Circle.  With Stanley Paterson.  Ed. by Alan Seaburg.  Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society and Mystic Seaport, 2003.

“To the Western Ocean,” in To the Western Ocean, the Anne Miniver Reader 2008.  Ed. by Alan Seaburg, Helen Wither, Linda Yeaton, Billerica, Ma.: Anne Miniver Press, 2008.

ARTICLES AND POETRY

“An Adoption Ceremony” in A Selection of Services for Special Occasions, ed. by Vincent B. Silliman with Arthur Foote and Christopher Gist Raible (Boston, 1981) 22.

“An Appreciation” in I Think I’d Better Go Along, by Ruth A. Woodman (Privately Published, 1970). 

“Beaten Back to Basics,” Fellowship (May 5, 1961). [poem]

“Boston Baked Beans a la Seaburg”, in Recipes from “25” (Boston, 1979) 23.

“Bring Them Hope, Not Hell: A Short History of Universalist and Unitarian Evangelism”, in Salted With Fire Unitarian Universalist Strategies for Sharing Faith and Growing Congregations, ed. by Scott W. Alexander (Boston, 1994) 43-60.

“Carl Seaburg Remembers Norway, Maine – 1950’s”, in Follow the Gleam A History of the Liberal Religious Youth Movements, by Wayne B. Arnason (Boston, 1980) 122-6. Republished in Wayne Arnason and Rebecca Scott, We Would Be One A History of Unitarian Universalist Youth Movements (Boston, 2005) 94-7.

“Clarence Skinner: Building a New Kind of Church”, in “To Bring More Light and Understanding”,  (Murray Grove Association, 1995) 49-69; reprinted in Clarence R. Skinner: Prophet of a New Universalism, ed. by Charles A. Howe (Boston, 1999) 87-113.

“Clarence Russell Skinner”, American National Biography, v.20, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (NY, 1999) 66-7.

“Digging Bait”, Christian Leader, 131 (January 1949) 9-10.

“Ever Heard of the Cinema Club?”, The Youth Leader, (May 1949) 12-3.

“Fragments,” Fellowship, 25 (May 1, 1959) 28. [poem]

“Fraternity Row”, The Youth Leader, (January 1950) 3.

“Gift Horse”, The Youth Leader, (December 1949] 3.

“Hurry Up, Please”, The Youth Leader, (January 1949) 3.

“Learning to Share Christmas in Norway Church School”, Universalist Leader, 88 (December 1956) 280-1. [With Marion Millett]

“The Lend a Hand Society – A History”, in the 100^th Anniversary Program of the Lend a Hand Society, First and Second Church, Boston, MA, October 18, 1992.

“The Minister as Scholar”, The Edge, 1 (No. 3 1955) 32.

“Ministries Beyond the Local Parish An Historical Overview,”  Lecture for the Society of the Larger Ministry, Cambridge, Mass., 1991.

“A Ministry for Tomorrow,” Presented Before the Greenfield Group, April 17, 1979.  [mimeo publication]

“Movies in Your UYF Program,” The Youth Leader, (May 1949) 11.

“Moving Against the Drift”, Unitarian Universalist World, 11 (March 15, 1980) 4; (April 1, 1980) 4; (April 15 1980) 4.  [also issued in mimeo edition]

“A Night of Rain”, The Youth Leader, (Summer 1949) 7. [poem]

“Poem to be Placed in a Cornerstone Somewhere”, Fellowship, 24 (September 1, 1958) 9. [poem]

“A Seed from which Great Things Can Grow”, in Universalism: For Such a Time as This, ed. by Charles A. Howe (Boston, 1993, [14].

“A Society for the Suppression of Virtue”, The Youth Leader, 4 (October 1950) 3. [poem]

“Some Universalist Notes in John Pierce’s Memoirs”, Journal of the Universalist Historical Society, 7 (1967-68) 121-5.

“Song”, in To Meet the Asking Years, ed. by Gordon B. McKeeman (Boston, 1983) 25.  [poem - originally in The Voyage] 

“The Strong Use Love”, Fellowship, 25 (March 1, 1959) 27. [poem]

“That Year of ‘Gloom & Agony”, in A Republican Institution in the Town of Boston, Club of Odd Volumes, 150 Annual Meeting, March 4, 1969.  [With Stanley C. Paterson]

“Universalist Service Committee Work Camp Royhill, England,  Summer, 1954,” Universalist Leader, 136 (1954) 236-7.

“Variations on a Theme”, The Youth leader, (March 1950) 3. [poem]

“War?”, The Youth Leader, (January 1949) 7. [poem]

“Yes?”, Fellowship, 24 (May 1, 1958) 24. [poem]

 WRITINGS IN OTHER VOLUMES

 Pickett, Helen R.  Rejoice Together, Prayers, Meditations, and other Readings for Family, Individual, and Small-Group Worship (Boston, 1995) 30,78.

MUSIC: LYRICS AND MELODIES

“Be That Guide”, [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 124.  [Originally written 1957 as “Be That Man” for his brother’s ordination to the Universalist ministry]

“Find a Stillness”, [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 352.

“God Who Fills the Universe”, [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 37.

“Head Over Heels”, Song lyrics for The Girl from Venus (Norway, Maine, 1957).

“I Didn’t Dream”, Song lyrics for The Girl from Venus (Norway, Maine, 1957).

“I Seek the Spirit of a Child”’ [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 338.

“In the Gentle of the Moon”, [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 234.

“A Noble Life, a Simple Faith”, [hymn] music by Carl Seaburg 1949, in The Youth Leader, (Summer 1949) 11.

“Once in Royal David’s City”, [hymn] in Celebrating Christmas in Song Thirteen New Carols (Boston, 1983) 7.

“Once in Royal David’s City”, [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 228.

“Rank by Rank Again We Stand”, [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 358.  {Carl wrote just the third stanza]

“Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow”, [hymn] music by Carl Seaburg 1941, in The Youth Leader, (Summer 1941) 10.

“When the Daffodils Arrive”, [hymn] in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, 1993) 62.

“When the Daffodils Arrive”, [Hymn] in Spiritual Harmony 370 Years of a Congregation’s Song, ed. Leo Collins  (Boston, 2000) 17.

 RECORDINGS

First and Second Church in Boston, The Choir, Celebrating Christmas in Song Thirteen New Carols, 1983. [“Once in Royal David’s City” carol 1]

First Unitarian Church of Oakland, The Chancel Choir, Bring Many Names.  Music from our Liberal Religious Tradition.  1996.  [“Find a Stillness” track 10]

Unitarian Church of Evanston Choir, Evanston Holidays, ca. 1983.  [“Once in Royal David’s City” Side two]

Unitarian Universalist Association and the Unitarian Universalist Musicians’ Network, A Concert for the Hymnbook, There’s Music in the Air, October 24, 1987.  [“Once in Royal David’s City” next to last track]