From Yale to Jail

The author looks back on his life as an American radical, culminating in his role as one of the Chicago Seven

In this loosely organized but surprisingly endearing memoir, peace activist and 1969 Chicago Seven defendant Dellinger recounts his diligent, remarkably consistent efforts to live according to his conscience. Born in 1915 to the family of a prominent Boston Republican lawyer, Dellinger ( Vietnam Revisited ) developed his revolutionary egalitarian politics at Yale and at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Earnest but not strident, he discusses his opposition to WW II and his principled refusal to pay bail, which led him to endure stints in many prisons. In straightforward prose, he recalls launching the magazine Liberation in 1956, tells of his early opposition to the Vietnam War and emphasizes how he aimed for a peaceful demonstration in Chicago during the Democratic Convention of 1968. While reflecting critically on such leaders as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Dellinger also ruminates on his marriage, his family life and his everyday attempts to build bridges with strangers. His dedication--"I'm still learning and growing," he declares at 77--is inspirational.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A thorough, thoughtful memoir of a lifetime of service to the principles of nonviolence. Born into a wealthy Republican family, his father a respected Boston attorney, Dellinger (Revolutionary Nonviolence, 1970) became a rebel while still young by rejecting the comfortable path to success mapped out for him. From his first forays into hobo jungles and the hard life of the homeless--undertaken during the Depression while an undergraduate at Yale--he accepted any and all risks. With the onset of WW II, his experiences in Nazi Germany and the knowledge that the US had supported Hitler's military buildup kept him from registering for the draft--an act of defiance that landed him in federal prison on two occasions during the war. Although subsequent antiwar activities included a now-famous role as one of the defendants in the Chicago Seven trial (stemming from protests during the 1968 Democratic Convention), Dellinger was also deeply involved in the civil-rights movement, and acted as editor/publisher of Liberation, for many years the primary outlet for dissenting American voices. His close contact with other activists--from Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bayard Rustin to Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden--permits Dellinger to offer a frank review of their actions and motives, but his memoir is most remarkable for its depiction of the trials and tribulations of one man's life of conscience. At times more rambling than riveting; still, overall, an open, inspiring chronicle, a personal history of more than half a century of dissent in America. (Photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

At the age of 75, Dellinger, a social activist best known as one of the Chicago Seven, can look back over a life crowded with more than enough peril and action for 100 men. A warm personality emerges from these pages, as reflected in Dellinger's vivid portrayal of the important--and unimportant--people he met and/or knew, the issues for which he lived and argued, and the events in which he was either an interested observer or active participant. While his disjointed narrative is something of a pastiche without literary merit, it reflects Dellinger's style. It has vigor. It has conviction. Some will disagree with Dellinger's views, but few will contend that he does not try to be fair and balanced and always concerned with human values. Well worth reading by anyone interested in the past half-century of American life.
- A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.