[Bestor Family Copy] CHAUTAUQUA: A Center for Education, Religion, and the Arts in Americal

Morrison, Theodore [Arthur and Dorothy Bestor Association]

Published by University of Chicago Press, 1974

Bestor Family Copy, inscribed on the FFEP by Dorothy K and Arthur J Bestor, 'For Bill, Annemarie, Barbara, and Claudia Bestor (4th and 5th generations of Chautauquans) / A Merry Christmas / From Arhur and Dorothy Bestor (3ed Generation Chautauquans) / 1975' (Black pen in Arthur's neat cursive hand). 350pp. Linen cloth with blindstamped front cover and gilt stamped spine. Edges a bit toned, very cleand and sharp internally with tattered DJ missing rear flap and a large chip out of the rear. The Bestors were the most prominent family in the history of the Chautauqua Institute, an American movement centered in Upstate New Yorkpromoting Education, Religion, and the Arts founded in Upstate New York. The family's association began with the Reverend Orson Porter Bestor, a Midwest Baptist preacher who promoted Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle groups in his churches in the late 1800's. His son, Arthur Bestor, came to the institute's Chautauqua, NY headquarters shortly after graduating from Chicago University in 1901 and became president in 1915. Arthur was the institute's longest-serving president, leaving a deep impress as 'an able and almost ferociously energetic administrator,' and a 'gentleman of the old-school.' Arthur's ability to network and communicate the Chautauqua's progressive vision of uplift through education brought many elite-society members into the orbit of the institution, notably the Roosevelt family, including Theodore, FDR, and most Eleanor. Arthur Jr. was born in 1908 and grew up at the institute. He was a renowned intellectual known for his contributions to the fields of Educational Theory and Constitutional Law, in addition to Utopian and Communitarian studies. After taking a PhD in History from Yale, he pursued research into American Utopian experiments, having seen first hand the influence of these movements on the Chautauquan ethos of social change through microcosm-modeling that he traced in his first book, Backwoods Utopias. Bill Bestor was an anthropologist and longtime professor at Linfield College in Oregon, and the latter three were his children and grandchildren. Seller Inventory # 505364

Bibliographic Details

Title: [Bestor Family Copy] CHAUTAUQUA: A Center ...
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 1974
Binding: Hardcover with Dust Jacket
Condition: VERY GOOD
Dust Jacket Condition: Poor
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: First Edition.