Melvin
Luxton Arnold was born August 13, 1913, the fifth of seven
children, one of whom died in infancy, to Daniel and Letitia
Luxton Arnold. His father was an electrician, and the
family lived in modest circumstances in Portland,
Oregon.
Mel's inquiring mind developed early. As young boy, he
was severely punished by his fundamentalist father for
asking "Who created God?" As he grew up, he
found interesting and stimulating friends in the neighborhood.
The father of his best friend, Tom Perry, was a basement
inventor and scientist, who challenged the boys to experiment
and question. The most respected and prosperous neighbors
on his block were an African-American professional couple,
a rarity in Portland at that time.
Like many young men in the hard economic years of the
Great Depression, Mel worked his way through high school.
He had an after school job with The News Telegram
newspaper, as a night reporter on the police beat. After
graduating from Franklin High School, he worked for the
paper as a full time reporter. He was always grateful
to the City Editor for assigning him to report on the
city's service clubs, because he got a good meal at the
noon luncheon meetings.
When his salary was increased one dollar to sixteen dollars
a week, he felt financially secure enough to marry his
high school sweetheart, Valerie Hendricksen. Their only
child, Alexandra, was born in December 1933.
With
his family to support, Mel never had the opportunity or
the finances to go on to college. He was self-educated
and read omnivorously for the rest of his life, in history,
philosophy, sociology . . . everything! Each book's notes
and bibliography led to ever expanding interests to explore.
He bought books as he could afford them, underlining as
he read, making marginal notes and frequently writing
summaries for his files. "Feed your mind!" he
told his daughter, and made sure she always had good books
to read.
Mel's responsibilities grew at The News Telegram,
and his early contacts with the members of the civic and
service clubs developed into important friendships. Among
the most socially active citizens were Portland's liberal
ministers, including Dr. Richard Steiner of the First
Unitarian Church, who became a good friend and mentor.
For
several years Mel and his colleague Richard Neuberger
(later Oregon's U.S. Senator) researched and wrote articles
on Northwest regional issues as "stringers"
for the national media.
In the years leading up to World War II, Mel was an account
executive with a major advertising agency in Portland,
then was with Portland General Electric as Director of
Advertising. During the early 1940s, he received a Presidential
appointment to the Northwest Regional Energy Production
Board. A "Dollar a Year" man, he never cashed
the check. His association and experience with energy
issues led to an executive position with Standard Oil,
N.J. at the headquarters in New York, in the publications
division.
In 1946, at the urging of his friend Dr. Richard Steiner,
he accepted the offer from the Unitarian Association as
Director of the Beacon Press and The Christian Register.
As
the war was coming to its end, he foresaw the potential
healing power of Albert Schweitzer's philosophy of "Reverence
for Life." Schweitzer's books were no longer in print,
and his publisher in England was not interested in new
editions. Mel decided to go to Africa and ask Dr. Schweitzer
personally for permission to publish his works in America.
This was a turning point, both for Mel and for the Beacon
Press. Schweitzer's enthusiastic acceptance and encouragement
gave Mel the confidence to pursue other distinguished
authors. For Beacon, it was the beginning of development
from a church based program into a nationally respected
publisher of scholarly books.
In 1947, Mel and Charles R Joy spent several weeks at
the Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene. They co-wrote The
Africa of Albert Schweitzer which was published jointly
by Beacon Press and Harper & Brothers in 1948.
The public interest in Schweitzer that developed was phenomenal.
Life magazine even hailed him as "The Greatest
Man In The World" in a three-page photo essay, with
Dr. Joy's photographs from the book. In 1949, when Dr.
Schweitzer made his first visit to America, to be the
keynote speaker at the Goethe bicentennial festival at
the Aspen Institute in Colorado, he asked Mel to accompany
him as he traveled around the country for speaking engagements,
organ recitals, and fund-raising events. It was a memorable
time for everyone involved.
Looking
back on his career, Mel felt most privileged to have been
friend of, and editor for Albert Schweitzer and Martin
Luther King, Jr., both Nobel Prize recipients.
When he retired in the early 1970s, he and Val decided
to return to their home state, where they bought a home
with three acres on the Applegate River in southern Oregon,
near Jacksonville, a historic gold rush town. For the
first time they owned their own home and had land for
a garden. Mel loved to work in his vegetable garden in
the rich soil of the river flood plain. The bountiful
harvest of vegetables went to neighbors and the local
Grange food bank. He amused his friends with notes about
his giant squash and his weight lifting exercises, usually
performed with Bach recordings playing in the background.
They welcomed the peace and quiet of the country life,
with the river, forest and the resident wildlife. Their
bend of the river was locally known as "cougar crossing,"
and occasionally one was spotted in the area. Their domestic
"wildlife" included their beloved Yorkshire
Terriers and a succession of abandoned cats who found
their way to a new home with the Arnolds.
Of
course, he read constantly, subscribing to The New
York Times, The London Times Literary Supplement,
The Economist, and numerous other periodicals.
He continued editing and corresponding with family, friends
and colleagues around the world, until his last days.
He died April 13, 2000, at the age of 86. Valerie, his
wife of 67 years died a few months later.
In 2002, they are survived by daughter Alexandra, her
husband Douglas Lynch, grandsons John and Jason, and great
grandsons Duncan and Noah.
Photos
courtesy of Alexandra Lynch
BEACON PRESS—THE GROWTH OF AN IDEA
by Walter Donald Kring
This
article abridged from the Christian
Register,
April 1956, was written when the author was chairman
of the AUA Division of Publications and President of
Beacon Press.
It is very difficult to assess the present in the midst
of the present; historians are fearful of this process,
and I probably should be. However, because the past ten
years of the Beacon Press have been inextricably bound up
with the director of the division, Mr. Melvin Arnold, his
recent resignation to become the associate editor of the
Religious Books Department at Harper and Brothers in New
York brings a time for evaluation.
Ideas more important than oil
When
Melvin Arnold came to 25 Beacon Street ten years ago from
the publications group of the Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey, he came with a desire to deal with important religious
ideas rather than with oil. He did not feel that there was
anything wrong with oil, but ideas were far more important
to him. He came to be the director of a newly organized
Division of Publications.
After a year, Mr. Arnold realized that book publishing was
the best area in which this work might be done. Until this
time the Beacon Press had been a small, highly respected
publishing house printing hymnbooks, religious education
material, ministers' sermons and books. Far above average
in quality, but far below average in sales. Ideas in print
are not much use unless they are read.
From this very important but meager beginning developed
the Beacon Press of today. In 1948, the Beacon catalogue
had 19 titles on its backlist; the spring 1956 catalogue
has 321. But the present reputation of the Press lies not
in the number of its volumes but in the importance of what
has been put in print.
It is interesting to note how prophetic was the earliest
major book publishing project of the Beacon Press after
Melvin Arnold's arrival. At a time when the popular men
of religion were anti-liberal, the Beacon Press set out
to introduce to this country a genius largely unknown to
Americans—Dr. Albert Schweitzer. In view of his present
popularity, it is difficult to realize that, in 1949, when
Dr. Schweitzer visited 25 Beacon Street, he made the statement
that more Americans had learned of his work after two years
of association with the Beacon Press than in the previous
twenty years of his association with all other presses.
American recognition of a man who had been known only to
a limited circle reached a high point with the celebration
of Dr. Schweitzer's eightieth birthday in 1955. At that
time eleven Beacon books, of which he was either subject
or author, were in bookstores and libraries.
Challenge to political totalitarianism
Another landmark in the publications program of the Beacon
Press during the last decade was the challenge to political
totalitarianism in the Roman Catholic Church voiced in Paul
Blanshard's three books and in Emmett McLoughlin's People's
Padre. Beacon was thrown almost accidentally into this
fray when the manuscript of American Freedom and Catholic
Power, having been refused by several important American
publishing houses, was submitted for consideration. After
two thorough checkings with authorities in each of the areas
the author discussed, Beacon published the book, announcing
on the jacket of the first edition: In a democracy, every
group that affects public policy must be accountable to
the entire citizenry. A democracy cannot survive if Iron
Curtains are placed around groups, secular, or clerical,
that intervene in public affairs.
Gradually the basis of the Beacon philosophy of democracy
has emerged through the decade. At first it directed public
attention to the danger of Catholic totalitarianism. Then
it became apparent that there were other forces also, both
on the so-called right and on the left, which were extreme
in their desire to destroy the basic traditions of freedom.
In the middle forties, the Press took upon itself the unpopular
task of helping American intellectuals face the harsh realities
of Communist totalitarianism. This program has received
more criticism than any other because many liberals were
not then convinced that the Soviet system was totalitarian.
Some thought that exposing right-wing radicalism was in
the liberal tradition but that the exposing of Stalinism
was not. However, in Apostles of Discord, published
in 1953, two chapters were devoted to exposing left-wing
radicalism in Protestant churches, and thirteen to analyzing
right-wing extremism in the same sources.
A less starry-eyed vision
It is also interesting to note that perhaps the largest
selection of books presented by any American house dealing
with the totalitarianism inherent in the Soviet system is
found on the Beacon backlist. Such books, it was hoped,
would bring liberals from their "starry-eyed"
vision of a new Utopia to the realities of aggressive totalitarianism
with a new Communist label. This may be one of the most
outstanding contributions of the press.
Another extreme which seemed to threaten American freedom
was the very important threat of "McCarthyism,"
which for some time American political leaders hesitated
to touch. In the book world this was Beacon's fight, and
it is to be remembered that almost all of the books of the
opposition were supplied by the Press. Beginning with McCarthy,
the Man, the Senator, and the Ism, through McCarthy
and the Communists (which enjoyed a brief stay on the
best seller lists until the Senate censure motion), Trial
by Television, and American Demogogues, Beacon
helped to alert America to the implications of "McCarthyism."
It is impossible to assess the importance of these books
in this struggle for freedom in America (although the Press
has heard from government officials that its books have
upon occasion influenced legislative action), but it is
obvious to all that they have played an important part.
In strong contrast to what has become the publishing situation
on Madison Avenue in New York, where the sales department
wields an increasing authority over editorial decisions,
the Beacon Press has always felt that what is printed is
of far more importance than whether the balance sheet is
in the red or the black. Today the Beacon Press is known
by many as one of the most courageous presses in America,
often printing books that no regular book publisher would
dare touch because of economic and religious pressure. But
it has also become known as one of the quality presses of
America, rating with those of universities in size and standards.
In the issuing of the new Beacon "quality paperback"
series the Press has gained additional stature. Beacon was
the third house to enter this field, and the first to introduce
the 'library-sized" paperback. Thus far Beacon Press
has published 26 paperback titles, many of them already
part of college supplementary reading lists.
When Mr. Arnold became director of the Division of Publications,
the publishing operation was small. Today it is a well-established
institution with a philosophy of publishing thoroughly in
keeping with the liberal faith in which we stand. It has
been an accomplishment to which many men might well have
been proud to give a whole lifetime.
Recommended Reading
The Africa of Albert Schweitzer
by Charles
R. Joy and Melvin Arnold, Second Edition
(London: Adam and Charles Black: 1949, 1958 and
New York: Harper and Row).
MELVIN ARNOLD AND UNITARIAN PUBLISHING
by Jeannette Hopkins, Past Director of Wesleyan
University Press
While
the AUA had a publication purpose since its founding
in 1825—indeed, a concern for book publication
as an organized Unitarian activity preceded the
AUA—and while there was a formal and continuing
book publishing program at the AUA from 1854 on,
the first use of the Beacon colophon and name
came in 1902—2002 is Beacon Press's centenary.
The Press plans, in 2004, to celebrate 150 years
of Unitarian and Universalist book publishing
at the General Assembly, with a published history
of the Press and other programs. The Beacon Press
program, after an effective startup in 1902, was,
essentially desultory until the time Melvin Luxton
Arnold (later he used only M.L. Arnold) arrived
in Boston. By the time of his resignation in December
1955 the Beacon Press list had become bold, innovative,
highly visible, and widely respected in public
affairs, academic, and religious circles. It had
four books, from 1952 to 1955, on the New York
Times' best seller lists. Its biggest sellers
were in the field of Catholic power-- Paul Blanshard's
American Freedom and Catholic Power, Communism,
Democracy and Catholic Power and Emmett McLoughlin's
Peoples' Padre. At least the first and
the last of these sold a quarter of a million
or more copies. But several books critical of
McCarthyism were also listed as best sellers and
received wide attention: The Herblock Book
by the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post
editorial cartoonist, Herbert Block, known to
everyone as Herblock; McCarthy, The Man, The
Senator and the Ism, by Jack Anderson and
Ronald May and McCarthy and the Communists;
sponsored by the American Committee for Cultural
Freedom. Ralph Lord Roy's Apostles of Discord,
on the infiltration into organized Protestantism
by the extreme left and extreme right, also appeared
briefly on the Times' list.
The book that led the way, the first Blanshard
book, was highly controversial—for 10 years
some top newspapers refused advertising for it,
for example. In 1948, when it was to be published
(and was), some on the AUA Board of Trustees,
fearful of retaliation by Catholics in Boston,
had come close to forbidding publication. Had
they prevailed none of the history that followed
would have occurred because Arnold and most of
the rest of the staff would have left, and no
successor would have dared publish controversial
books other publishers were afraid to handle.
But then a publisher who was a trustee pointed
out that AUA press directors had never been censored
and why start now? The AUA board voted for the
freedom to publish.
For the first Blanshard books, and all the other
controversial books that followed during Arnold's
tenure, the same process of fact checking and
vetting by experts was used. Beacon offered to
refund the purchase price if a reader requested
it and pledged to correct any confirmed errors
its readers (and any others) cited. Fifty or so
sets of manuscripts and later, of proofs, for
the first Blanshard book, were sent out to authorities
on papal history and power for review; all corrections
needed were made. Most of these titles promised
to issue a supplement free of charge to report
mistakes—none ever had to be printed for
any of these controversial books. Some books carried
a coupon on the jacket or enclosed a return postcard
for reader responses.
Other important titles on public policy published
in these several years were Josiah DuBois's The
Devil's Disciples on the I.G. Farben cartel
and the Nazi movement (DuBois was the chief prosecutor
at Nuremburg); and the first books published in
the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education case
against school segregation: the first book by
the civil rights intellectual guru, Kenneth B.
Clark, Prejudice and Your Child, and the
first book by Herbert Hill and Jack Greenberg
(both of the NAACP), Citizens Guide to Desegregation;
and Alfred McClung Lee's Fraternities Without
Brotherhood; and the first nonfiction book
by James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son,
one of the first cluster of Beacon Paperbacks,
the first "library-sized" paperbacks
published (the smaller, highly successful Anchor
books by Doubleday's Jason Epstein were the pioneer
of quality paperbacks).
But Beacon Press had another distinguished face
that was not controversial, except, perhaps, intellectually,
publishing first rate scholarly books like Herbert
Marcuse's Eros and Civilization, Gilbert
Murray's The Greeks and their Gods, books
by Sorokin and by Whitehead, John Dewey, Burckhardt,
Huizinga, and many others. So, too, it issued
many books in world religions, such as the Jefferson
Bible, Gandhi's Autobiography, The
Letters of Stephen Wise, and others.
Most notable among the books on liberal religion
published by the Press were books by Albert Schweitzer,
published beginning in 1949.
by Jeannette E. Hopkins from an article on "Books
That Will Not Burn" (Christian Register,
June 1955), written
when she was news editor of the American Unitarian
Association and senior editor of Beacon Press.
