Dome sweet home

A publishing contract puts me—and Father Twomey—on Notre Dame's team

In this screenshot from a film, Father Louis J. Twomey laughs during a testimonial dinner in his honor in New Orleans, October 1, 1966 (Loyola University New Orleans Special Collections).

Just a short post today with some wonderful news: Last week, just before leaving to give talks on Father Ed in Indianapolis during the Eucharistic Congress, I signed a contract with Notre Dame Press, the largest Catholic university press in the world, for A Priest in Good Trouble: Father Louis J. Twomey, S.J.’s Battle for Human Dignity with MLK in the Deep South. Notre Dame Press Associate Acquisitions Editor Rachel Kindler approached me after seeing my feature on Father Twomey in America, and my longtime literary agent Wes Yoder did his usual amazing job of ensuring that the agreement was to everyone’s satisfaction.

Notre Dame Press is an ideal home for my Father Twomey biography. In addition to being known worldwide for publishing academic books of the highest quality, it has several connections to Twomey’s life and legacy. Among them: the University of Notre Dame was the site of one of the Jesuit’s greatest triumphs as a speaker, when he addressed the Christian Family Movement convention there in August 1961. (That talk included one of his greatest quotes: “A person’s attitude toward race is the acid test of his or her willingness to take Christianity and take it whole.”) And Notre Dame Press itself in 1966 published Dedication and Leadership by one of the men Twomey admired most, Douglas Arnold Hyde, an ex-communist turned Catholic.

Since I have completed my archival research for A Priest in Good Trouble, my next task will be to sit down and write the book, which I expect to take six months. I have enough savings at the moment to last three months. Thus, if it is indeed the Lord’s will that Father Twomey’s story be told by me at this time—and I hope it is—then a GoFundMe is in order.¹ So … stay tuned! But in the meantime, we can celebrate. Deo gratias.

1. Academic presses are not known for offering advances. More commonly, in a practice known as subvention, they receive funds to facilitate a book’s publication, though no subvention was involved in my case. My contract provides for a modest payment after I submit the manuscript, which will immediately be eaten up by the cost of hiring a professional to create an index for the book. On the upside, I’m on track to receive royalties, and I retained the film rights. My personal choice to play Father Twomey would be Matthew McConaughey.