Part 6. Coauthoring “All We’re Meant to Be”— Exciting Times in 1973!

by Letha Dawson Scanzoni

Introduction: In this continued story about the writing of All We’re Meant to Be, I left off in Part 5 with the elation that Nancy Hardesty and I felt when Floyd Thatcher, executive editor at Word Books, expressed interest in seeing our manuscript in August, 1972.  I had earlier worked with Floyd Thatcher during his time as an editor at Zondervan, and he had commissioned and published one of my other books; so I had great confidence in his editorial judgment.

Now he was with Word Books and was actually interested in the manuscript for The Christian Woman’s Liberation! It was such fabulous news after having been turned down repeatedly by so many other publishers.

So much was happening during this period of time

We sent off our manuscript immediately and then waited for Word’s decision over the months ahead. We would not hear  from them again until April, 1973.

Meanwhile, for both Nancy Hardesty and me, 1973 was turning out to be one of our busiest years yet.  I had finished my studies at IU by the end of 1971, but now it was Nancy’s turn to pursue further education.  She was preparing to leave her teaching position at Trinity College at the end of the spring semester and to study toward a Ph.D. degree in the history of Christianity at the University of Chicago.  She would begin in the fall. It was a step of faith, and she was applying for grants and loans.  In one letter, she expressed her anxiety about finances because she had heard that gasoline prices might rise to as much as 50 cents a gallon.

Nancy’s activities and the “Chicago Declaration

Nancy was also busy working on a book on singleness (which was never completed); and, as I recall, she was at the same time writing her Eternity magazine series on women in Christian history which eventually served as the basis for her book, Great Women of Faith (Baker, 1980).  In addition, she was writing some articles on women and Christianity for religious periodicals, as well as carrying on her teaching duties, fulfilling speaking engagements, serving as a panelist at conferences, and talking with a formation group of progressive evangelicals who were planning a fall gathering in Chicago to discuss the application of their Christian faith to issues of social justice. They wanted to urge evangelicals to be more involved in such concerns as race, poverty, environmentalism, peace, materialism, militarism, and other issues. (The word evangelical did not have the negative connotation it has in the media today.)

In November 1973,  as plans from this formative group materialized into the larger meeting they had envisioned, a select group of forty to fifty men and a handful of women gathered in Chicago.  Nancy was one of these five or six women and was determined to convince the men that equality for women was a social justice issue, something they had apparently not considered in that way. She drafted a powerful sentence about this to be included in the closing manifesto, “A Declaration of Evangelical Concern. ” The document was signed by all those present.  It  acknowledged the past failure of evangelical Christians to live out Christ’s compassion and justice, and it challenged the evangelical community to change.  This document came to be known as “The Chicago Declaration.”

That meeting resulted in a second much larger gathering a year later, which, through the diligent efforts of Nancy Hardesty as secretary, issued invitations that ensured a much larger representation of women.  This second meeting (November, 1974) not only resulted in the formation of an organization called “Evangelicals for Social Action” (ESA); it also formed the basis for a separate organization, the Evangelical Women’s Caucus (EWC), later called the Evangelical & Ecumenical Women’s Caucus (EEWC).

Nancy played the principal role in bringing together the women who attended the 1974 gathering, who in the majority of cases had not known each other before that meeting. (In a plenary speech at the 2004 EEWC Conference in Claremont, California, Nancy recounted fascinating behind-the-scenes details about the 1973 and 1974 social concerns gatherings in Chicago.)

Letha’s activities during those busy years

I, for my part, while waiting to hear from Word Books after their request for the manuscript in August 1972 , found the last months of 1972 and early months of 1973 were continuing to present increased opportunities for writing articles, speaking, teaching in the church, counseling Christian women who often wanted to discuss personal problems related to gendered role expectations, writing the Sunday school materials for Union Gospel Press, and proofreading and indexing the book galleys Regal had sent for my sex education book, Sex Is A Parent Affair, which would be published in 1973. I had been writing that book concurrently with coauthoring the “woman book” with Nancy.

scan0003.jLetha&Nancy,Thompson farm

Nancy (left) and Letha (right) take some time out to visit friends at an Indiana farm during those busy years.

An important invitation

Then, as a total surprise in late January, 1973, a letter came addressed to me as “Mrs. John Scanzoni” in care of my husband in the IU sociology department.  It was from Dr. Vernon Grounds, the president of the Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado, inviting me to speak at a conference. I had never met Dr. Grounds, nor did I know anything about him.  He wrote and enclosed a tentative conference program that he said he had been “projecting in sheer faith.”  If his idea worked out, the conference would be held in May and serve as the second in a series of annual conferences on contemporary issues, the previous one having been on theological education.

He explained this year’s projected topic.  “It seems to me high time for a representative company of evangelical scholars to come to grips with one of the most pivotal and explosive of contemporary issues: what are the role and status of women from a distinctly Biblical perspective,”   Wow!  I was thrilled beyond measure to read those words.  Maybe Nancy and I were not so alone as we had thought!   The conference would be called, “Evangelical Perspectives on Woman’s Role and Status.”

Dr. Grounds enclosed a complete schedule and list of invited speakers, including the specific topics he was assigning to each of us, not knowing if any of us would accept the invitation or be able to come May 29-31, 1973, just four months away! He said there was just a little bit of donated seed money available for the conference but that they were trying to raise more. He warned, however, that the projected conference would have to be done on a shoestring budget and could only cover our transportation, meals, lodging and a $50 honorarium.   Would I be willing to come and speak?

The invited speakers

I glanced over the list of projected speakers as well as assigned respondents to their papers.  The list included professors of theology, psychology, sociology, and biblical studies (all men) and two women. I was to be one of the two female speakers.  In addition, there would be the honorary chairwoman, who would introduce the speakers, and author Rosalind Rinker, who was invited to lead devotions before each session.

My assigned topic would be “Women’s Role in Christian Ministry.”  The other female speaker was assigned the topic, “The Revolt of the Second Sex: An Overview” (later changed on the printed program to “The Revolt of Women: An Overview”).  Her name?  Virginia R. Mollenkott, Ph.D., professor of English and noted Milton scholar (shown below in a photo I took in 1975).

As soon as I saw her name on the list of invited speakers,  Virginia Mollekott,1975-1 I knew without a doubt that I wanted to go  to the conference, no matter how pressured my schedule was over the next four months! I had never met Virginia Mollenkott, nor had I heard her speak; but I was a big fan of her writing.   I had read some of her articles in Christianity Today, as well as her first book, Adamant and Stone Chips: A Christian Humanist Approach to Knowledge (Word Books,1967), which said on the book jacket flap, “Many people from sheltered evangelical environments suddenly discover that there’s a big wide world to be explored. Often their education has been so unrealistic that the discovery leads them to reject the true with the false.”

I had also enjoyed reading her second book, In Search of Balance (Word, 1967).

I thought of Dr. Mollenkott as an intellectual woman, a deeply committed Christian scholar, and a brilliant thinker and writer. But until seeing Dr. Grounds’s projected conference program, I had no idea she had done any thinking about the woman issue. I was tremendously excited about the idea of meeting her.

I immediately replied to Dr. Grounds, accepting his invitation.  I wrote:

I agree with you that it is high time that evangelicals give serious and creative thought to this very important contemporary issue. . . .It concerns me deeply that attitudes, traditions, and biblical interpretations by many Christians have conveyed to the world that Christianity doesn’t liberate women at all. That idea has come through, not only in women’s lib literature, but also through the mass media—such as on TV’s “All in the Family.” Thus, many modern people have been given the impression that Christianity holds women down, and may even turn away from the gospel because of it. (I’ve known of cases where this has been a real stumblingblock.)

Miss Nancy Hardesty (of the English faculty at Trinity College, Deerfield, Illinois) and I have written a book together entitled The Christian Women’s Liberation (over 300 typed pages in which we have tried to be both scholarly and practical), which is under consideration by a publisher at present. I’ll try to remember to enclose an outline. May I suggest that you consider Miss Hardesty as an additional or alternative speaker in the event some of the others are unable to participate in your projected conference? Perhaps you have read her chapter on this subject in the recent book by Clouse, Linder, and Pierard, entitled The Cross and the Flag. I don’t know what her teaching schedule would be in May or if she could come if you would be interested in her participation, but I just thought I’d take the liberty of mentioning her to you as another person who has given a great deal of thought to this subject. (Letha Scanzoni, letter to Vernon Grounds, February 1, 1973)

Nancy registered as a conference participant, and Dr. Grounds kindly arranged for her lodging to be covered by having the two of us stay in the home of one of the friends of the seminary. My plane to Denver connected at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport so Nancy was able to arrange to meet me there and fly out on the same plane.

New friendships

Shortly before the conference meetings began, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott walked into the room; and as we introduced ourselves, her first words to me were: “You were so smart to write that article as a history piece about past feminists answering their religious critics.”  I realized she was referring to my article, “The Feminists and the Bible,” which had been published in Christianity Today a few months earlier (Feb. 2, 1973 issue).

I was delighted beyond measure to learn that she, a scholar whom I esteemed so highly, had read and liked my article!  I told her I had recently appreciated a new article she had written, too, for The Christian Herald—which I believe was her first one to address the woman issue directly.

Another name on the conference program  had also become familiar to me.  Dr. Paul Jewett, professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and I had begun corresponding shortly before the conference because he, too, had read my  article,“The Feminists in the Bible,” and had written to me in care of Christianity Today to express appreciation. In his first letter to me he had said:

I had to smile at the way in which you maneuvered your way through some of the Pauline materials, alluding to the questions raised by feminists of another generation. I understand, of course, that you really had to do this if you wanted your manuscript to get into print but I would be curious to know what further thoughts you might have on these matters. (Paul Jewett, letter to Letha Scanzoni, February 21, 1973).

I had responded with one of my lengthy letters, describing my biblical and theological understanding;  and now, to my great delight,I had a chance to meet him in person!

Virginia and Nancy were also happy to meet him.  It was the beginning of a warm friendship among the four of us, all of whom within the next few years would become known as authors of books on gender equality within the Christian faith. Paul Jewett’s MAN as Male and Female was published in 1975, with a foreword by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott.  Virginia’s own book on the topic, Women, Men, and the Bible was published in 1977.

( An aside here: In 1978, the book Virginia Mollenkott and I coauthored, Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, was published;  and that book’s backstory is told in the preface of our 1992 revised and expanded edition.)

More about the “Evangelical Perspectives on Woman’s Role and Status” conference in Denver

Since Roz Rinker was unable to attend the Denver conference, Vernon Grounds wrote again to Virginia and me on March 16, asking each of us if (in addition to our major speeches) we would be willing to lead the opening devotions that began each day’s session. “I think our program will be enhanced if we have women performing a spiritual function while the men in the audience listen!” he wrote.

I was assigned to give my brief devotional talk right before Virginia’s speech, which was scheduled as the first speech of the conference.  I felt honored, having been in awe of Virginia’s scholarship for so long.  (In today’s terms, if Virginia were a rock star—which she was in my mind—I was the “opening act.” And I felt privileged indeed.)

I still have the notes from my devotional talk, scribbled in outline form on a 3×5 card.  Realizing there were going to different beliefs  and likely disagreements about women’s roles represented at the conference, I was quite sure our egalitarian point of view would be considered unbiblical by traditionalists who would stress male headship and female subordination.  And I perceived that the discussion could get tense or heated during those three days. (It did.  Strong, opposing opinions were held and voiced, but the discourse was for the most part courteous.)

Mining the Scriptures

I therefore decided to build my brief devotional talk around hermeneutics and the need to recognize principles for interpreting the Bible. I used the analogy of mining for precious gems.  (I later wrote up those notes as an article for The Other Side magazine, May/June, 1976).

For my Scripture text on mining, I used the 28th chapter of Job in the Today’s English Version (also known as the Good News Bible).   I emphasized the loneliness of the task (v.4), and the hard work and risks of digging for truth in new veins of the mine.  But then come the rewards: “They discover precious stones. . .and bring to light what is hidden” (vv.10-11). I talked about Jesus’ words about bringing out treasures both old and new.

The Job 28 passage goes on to say that ultimately the search must be for wisdom, because “the value of wisdom is more than coral or crystal or rubies, the finest topaz and the purest gold” and that “God alone knows the way, knows the place where wisdom is found” (v. 23).  I used that verse to emphasize that “we know only in part” (1 Cor. 13:12), and only God sees the whole picture.  Therefore, humility is important as we go about the task of interpreting Scripture.

I was well aware of the fear of disorder that many traditionalists feel when long-held interpretations are questioned or challenged—even though surface appearances may not reveal the extent of the anxiety.  “Food grows out of the earth, but underneath the same earth, all is torn up and crushed” (Job 28:5).  I said that the security of settled beliefs disappears when different interpretations are considered, and the cosmos may even seem to turn into chaos for a time.   What had always been considered certainty may seem to be “torn up and crushed.”

Setting a tone

I was hoping that such an emphasis, showing an awareness of possible disagreements among the conference group and how unsettling they can be, would set in advance a tone of Christian love, congeniality, and openness to one another as we discussed what I knew would be controversial ideas about women’s roles and gender equality.

I didn’t want the Christians gathered to be afraid of new ways of looking at Scripture passages. I referred to an article that had appeared in the highly trusted evangelical magazine Christianity Today a few years earlier.  Theologian G. C. Berkouwer had written” “The moment the Church loses interest in working the mines of the Word because it thinks it has seen all there is to see, that moment the Church loses its power and its credibility in the world. When the Church thinks it knows all there is to know, the opportunity for surprising discovery is closed  (from  G.C. Berkouwer, “Understanding Scripture,” Christianity Today, May 22, 1970).

(Virginia later told me she thought I may have also disarmed any potentially hostile attendees through someSteve's second birthday,1959 of my opening personal remarks about having had to fly out to the conference on my older son’s 16th birthday and assuring the audience I had first baked his favorite cake before I had left.

I may also have told the story of his second birthday many years earlier when I had asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted me to bake for him.   With a big grin, Stevie had shouted out, “Pink icing!”

Who cared about the cake?  It was the icing that mattered! And so a family tradition had been born.)

Publicity

The “Evangelical Perspectives on Woman’s Role and Status” conference in Denver provided an extra bonus for Nancy Hardesty and me: it gave us  new opportunities to publicize our forthcoming book, which had at last been accepted for publication by Word Books exactly one month before the conference.

Nancy and I, along with sociologist David Moberg, another conference speaker, were interviewed about the conference by the Denver Post religion editor, Virginia Culver.  The article appeared at the top of the religion page on June 1, 1973 under the bold headline” “Churchwomen’s Lib Proposed—More than Meatloaves.”  The article mentioned our forthcoming book.

Throughout the conference, Nancy conversed with attendees and took detailed notes of both formal and informal comments during the discussions as well as the contents of the speeches themselves.  She wrote a news report about it for Christianity Today and another article for the July-August, 1973 issue of the Reformed Journal.

The Reformed Journal article was announced on the cover and printed as the main feature for the magazine.  It was five pages long and described the proceedings of the conference in great detail.  Titled, “The Status of Evangelical Women,” it had the tag line, “Dollmakers for the church nursery?” (The phrase was based on an true incident that I had described during my conference speech.)

There were some people who only  learned about the conference later by reading Nancy’s two powerful articles describing the different opinions expressed at the gathering.  Perhaps not surprisingly, given the controversy that surrounded women’s roles at the time, the seminary (and especially its president) took considerable flak from some seminary supporters who worried that the seminary might “be advocating the women’s liberation movement.”

Jewett correspondence and a summary of Nancy’s and my publishing journey

Paul Jewett had to leave the conference in a hurry to attend another commitment, and wrote me a letter on June 15, 1973, to express regret that he had not had a chance to say goodbye and that we had not had more time to discuss some parts of our earlier correspondence.  He enclosed his class materials for a course he was teaching (that would later be incorporated into his book, MAN as Male and Female) and requested that I share the materials with Nancy so that she could read them, too.

Since he was trying to catch up on some parts of our earlier correspondence, he had written:

I am distressed to see the problem you are having over publication. I surely hope that you are able to somehow or other overcome it. I wish that I had a word of advice but I do not. The problem you mention of wanting something briefer and less scholarly in order to increase their sales is one which I obviously will face to an even greater degree when and if I attempt publication. (Paul K. Jewett, letter to Letha Scanzoni, June 15, 1973)

My response  included a long summary of what Nancy and I had gone through in our search for a publisher.  I am going to include that section below, because it can also serve as an overview or review for readers who might have found themselves “lost” in all the details in my previous post (March 21).  (In looking over my retelling of our publishing adventures, I see the only publisher I forgot to mention was our brief contact with Fortress.)

Here then is part of my reply to Paul Jewett’s June 15, 1973 letter:

. . .I appreciate your concern about publication of the book Nancy and I wrote, but I guess I forgot to tell you while in Denver that Word accepted our book and plans to publish it shortly after the first of the year.  Essentially they want us to keep the book pretty much as is (with regard to both the scholarly and practical aspects) but to cut down on excess verbiage and the repetition that inevitably occurred with two persons working on the book, each doing separate chapters for the most part, with about 280 miles between us.

The manuscript at the time Word accepted it, was 342 pp. long and includes approximately 318 footnotes! To our surprise and delight, Word wants us to retain all the references (in the back of the book) to indicate thoroughness in research and to aid interested readers who want to pursue the study further.  However, the editors want us to shorten the book by about 100 pp., and it is this revising and editing that Nancy and I are working on at present. . . .I’ll try to enclose the outline of the book to give you some idea of how we treated the subject.

. . . .Since you mentioned the problems you might also run into with regard to publication, perhaps you’ll be interested in some of our experiences. (Although I would think a publisher like Westminster or Fortress would quickly grab your book without any problems.)  The first publisher to see our outline was Holman of Lippincott. They had asked to see it after they got wind of our project through an article Nancy wrote for Eternity. But they were disappointed that it was so scholarly and said it would not sell to the traditional “women’s market” because “the titles women buy tend to be inspirational, sentimental, or worse. Witness the big sales of Genie Price,” and they didn’t want to risk poor sales. That there are intelligent, thoughtful, searching women, not to mention interested men, somehow escaped them.

Next we tried Holt, Rinehart and Winston and ran into some of the most courteous, kind, empathic concern we have come across among publishers.  Joseph Cunneen, the senior editor, has taken great personal interest from the beginning. He is also the editor of Cross Currents, as you probably know, and wants a review copy sent there so the journal can carry a review.  He liked the book, gave us much practical advice in letters to both Nancy and I, invited us to call him collect for any additional advice even after he knew Holt wouldn’t be publishing it, and offered to let us use his name as a reference with other publishers.

Yet, he couldn’t talk his firm’s management into publishing the book—mainly because they had published Elsie Gibson’s When the Minister is a Woman a year or two earlier and it hadn’t sold well. In advising on other publishers, Mr. Cunneen suggested first-rate Protestant publishers and denominational houses, such as Eerdmans, Fortress, Abingdon, and Westminster. He assumed, he said, that we had already tried conservative presses such as Revell and Zondervan and that they had turned us down. (Actually, we had not tried them, even though I’ve had book published by both of them, because we wanted to reach a wider audience and this book had a different image in our minds.)

One sentence in Cunneen’s latest letter amuses me now, because he had no idea we would even try Word: “There is no guarantee that Harper or Holt would sell more copies than Abingdon or Westminster; if Word took it—which I doubt—they would undoubtedly outsell us, because they do know and market well to their own audience.”

To continue the saga—we next tried Harper & Row. They took an inordinately long time to make up their minds, kept the manuscript nearly a year (including the time they first looked at the outline, gave us the go ahead, then saw the complete ms.). During that time they had a change of editors which may account for part of the difficulty. At one point, they suggested cutting out most of the biblical and scholarly material and keeping the practical parts. When we expressed hesitation about chopping out the things about our book that we felt were unique, they decided not to accept it.

I think it was Creation House that next looked at the book.  Their suggestion was just the opposite. They wanted the Biblical parts but wanted all the “practical” parts (on marriage, singleness, etc.) omitted. For many reasons, we decided not to go with them.

Then Eerdmans looked at the book and turned it down without any explanation (other than maybe something general like “they had a full schedule of publication” or something).  Interestingly, while it was being considered by them, Nancy ran into James Sire of I.V. Press one day on the Trinity campus. He has often disagreed with her on the subject of female equality but knew about our book so asked how it was coming.  She said, “Eerdmans has it now,” to which he replied, “Oh, they’ll never take it. They’re a bunch of male chauvinists, too.”  Then she asked, “When will Inter-Varsity ever come out with a book on liberated women?”  She said Sire replied that it would never happen as long as he’s editor.   (It hurts to see the way some men joke about these things in a way they’d never dare do if the matter under discussion was something like rights for blacks. But somehow women just aren’t taken seriously.  On the other hand, I shouldn’t be too harsh. Both Eerdmans and I.V. issued editions of that Dorothy Sayers book you read from[Are Women Human?].)

Anyway, next we tried Word, and they were very much enthused and offered a contract right away. [Well, actually not right away, but it might have seemed that way when I wrote that letter in 1973, after that long wait with Harper!]  So that’s how the project stands at present. Revising is going well, and I do think the book will be all the better for the cutting.    (Excerpted from Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Paul King Jewett,  July 3, 1973).

Watch for the next installment of this series.  Part 7 will be titled, “Published at last!”

Copyright 2011 by Letha Dawson Scanzoni

Part 5. Coauthoring “All We’re Meant to Be” -– Getting Published

by Letha Dawson Scanzoni

Introduction: In prior installments of the story behind the writing of All We’re Meant to Be,” I described the launching of the book project in late 1969 (Part 1) and left off at the end of Part 4 as Nancy Hardesty and I began our search for a publisher in the fall of 1970.

The book was not published, however, until 1974.  But we never lost faith that it would be published, and after each rejection letter, we tried again with a different publisher.  I want to tell that story in two sections, which I’m posting as Part 5 (this one) and Part 6 (the next one) of this series.

Hope and Confidence

In August, 1970, Nancy visited me for a few days as we continued our work on the book. By then, it was shaping up nicely.  After she left, I wrote and thanked her for taking the time and bother to make the long trip.

I really felt the time together was extremely profitable, and once again I’m struck by the way we work so well together, our thoughts clicking together, new ideas or insights by one stimulating the other, and so on.  Surely God is in this!  I’m convinced of that without a doubt.  And I have high hopes for the book, Nancy; I really think it’s going to be far better than either of us dreamed when we began—and that it will have a real ministry. I think the things we’ve thought through, talked through, and lived through are all going to give the book a depth and helpful function it couldn’t otherwise have.  I can’t help but see God’s providential leading in all this—even the experiences of our lives that seemed painful or purposeless at the time.   (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, August 12, 1970).

It was our sharing this belief that kept us going during the next two and a half years—even as publisher after publisher rejected our book proposal (a query letter describing the projected book, the outline, and some sample chapters) and later the actual manuscript itself.

Despair

Even so, we would be less than honest not to admit that there were also times of feeling dejected as time dragged on without any publisher’s being willing to offer a contract.  In one letter, while saying, “we’ve got to hit the jackpot soon,” Nancy poured out her discouragement.

I couldn’t believe it last night as I looked through our stack of five different publishers, all topped with rejection letters.  I guess I don’t feel depressed, just numb. And a little hurt and embarrassed because I’ve talked about the book for so long and people must think it’s awful that so many publishers have rejected it.   I haven’t had the courage to mention the latest rejection to a soul around here.  I almost did to Joan [Olson] the other day, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  Well, God knows all that.  When you’ve prayed for something for so long, do you ever get to the point where you just don’t bother anymore because he just doesn’t seem to care?”  (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Dec. 18, 1972)

Life goes on

We were not just sitting around waiting as our book proposal (and later the manuscript) was making its rounds.  Each of us was writing articles for various Christian periodicals and accepting speaking engagements which often involved travel, as well as carrying on all the other aspects of our daily lives.

For me, that meant not only family and household tasks but a heavy schedule related to teaching church-related classes and holding the weekly small group meetings of mostly university students in our family’s home. The “small” group that met Sunday evenings had now grown to 25 people, and I not only helped teach and lead the discussion but also made the refreshments each week and made sure the house was cleaned and ready for guests.

In one letter to Nancy I told her how I yearned to have just one Sunday evening off.  During 1970-1971, I was also keeping up my own heavy load of university studies, pedaling my bicycle back and fourth between home and classes (three miles each way).

Often I shared with her stories about my everyday family life, as in this paragraph:

Steve and Dave are off from school all week this week (because the school system ran low on funds so cut off 3 days from the school year—which means the teachers lose 3 days’ pay plus what they lost from Nixon’s freeze), so I have more interruptions than usual and an extra meal to prepare in the middle of the day. But I am trying to take time with them and not be too preoccupied, even though I have started my new project. This morning I helped Dave get started on a craft set (wood plaque kit) we got him for his birthday. Steve is busy writing an English report on flying saucers and the project fascinates him; then the afternoons he spends at the computing center [at IU].  Seems to be a real scholar and says his work is his fun!  John is still busy at IU every day with the female role/fertility project, and soon all the data will be ready for analyzing—which is when it becomes more fun after all the tedious work of coding.  (Sidelight: that word “fertility” triggered a thought.  A few weeks ago we were riding past the campus area when David started saying something about “the fertility houses” and we at first didn’t know what he was talking about; then we saw what he meant—the fraternity houses. He just got his words mixed up, but John laughed and said it might not be too far off!) (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, Nov. 23, 1971)

One afternoon in 1970, I began a letter to Nancy with the opening paragraph written in Latin.  I went on:

I guess from the above you can easily guess what I’ve been working on this afternoon.  I thought of writing the whole letter in Latin, but decided you probably wouldn’t especially appreciate that!

It’s been a busy day.  I got up at five to review for a midterm exam at 8:30 a.m., then another class, then home to work on Latin, then an appointment at David’s school for a conference with his teacher (twice a year they do this instead of report cards), then back home to do a washing, more Latin, and this letter. And really I don’t even feel tired. God is certainly granting strength and peace; I couldn’t explain it otherwise. (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, November 5, 1970).

Shortly before writing that letter I had fulfilled a speaking engagement in California after which a Regal Books editor approached me and asked if I would like to write a book on sex education in the Christian home.  And so in this same Nov. 5 letter to Nancy, I had said, “Yes, as plans now stand, I should be finished with my university work sometime next summer. Probably I will take the Regal Press contract too and begin work on that either in the fall or concurrently with our other book.”

Nancy, for her part, was just as busy as I during those years of waiting for a publisher to say yes. She was taking seminary courses, writing articles, teaching English and writing classes full time, serving as chair of the division of language and literature (which, as she explained in an April 19, 1971 letter, “also means membership on the Administrative Affairs Committee which essentially runs the college)  and faithfully fulfilling the duties of her part-time sportswriting job for the college. In a 1971 letter she wrote:

It’s Sunday evening, 8:30, and I have my sports stories done (two very dismal losses at away games this week—I just figured that the government figures I spent $26.76 driving this week! [Gasoline was 36 cents a gallon then]). I also have 65 term papers read, which is all I can find at the moment. I don’t know where the others are and I can’t say I care. Actually they were rather interesting. I got one on authority in the family and when she turned it in the girl said she was scared—and I know why. She came to all the traditional answers. I told her she could have done more solid biblical research, but I admitted that if she had read six or eight more commentaries, she probably would have come to the same conclusions. Our position isn’t too widespread. (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, January 17, 1971)

Or again on another Sunday evening in 1972:

I’ve been working since I came home from church at 12:30 and just finished grading all the papers and writing my two sports’ releases. I also graded papers before church and last night and yesterday morning. I should be putting together a test at the moment but I’ve wanted to write to you. Work takes so much time and it frustrates me.  (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Oct. 8, 1972, 9 p.m.)

Her part-time job as sportswriter had attracted attention outside Trinity College where she taught. During the first week of February 1971, the Chicago Tribune published an article by Mike Conklin describing Nancy as a rarity in the sports world—a female sports publicist.  Calling her “Miss Hardesty” throughout, the article pointed out how seriously she took the job, working at it almost full time and becoming one of the school’s most devoted fans, attending all the home basketball games and many on the road.  In the previous fall, the article said, she was the “only person to attend every cross-country meet.”  The article pointed out problems she had encountered at first. “The wire services didn’t take me seriously when I called in results. Some of the newspaper men would tease me,” Nancy told the Tribune reporter.

The article mentioned the book she and I were writing, which at the time we titled The Christian Woman’s Liberation, and concluded that Nancy “probably could add a chapter on her part-time job.” (A photocopy of the article, without a date, was included with Nancy’s letter to me dated February 4, 1971.)

Travel

Not only did we each sometimes travel for speaking engagements during this time, but in 1972 Nancy spent much of July on a tour of the Scandinavian countries.  Before she left, she sent me a schedule and  an American Express brochure that listed the places where mail could reach her throughout her travels.  We carried on our copious correspondence as usual, although a bit less frequently and with much shorter letters because we tried to write them on those pale blue tissue-thin all-in-one airmail letter forms to save on postage costs.

Nancy’s eagerly anticipated letters from Scandinavia brought more that business discussions about getting the book published; they offered me a vicarious visit to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark through her colorful descriptions.

The publishing saga continues

From late 1970 through 1973, we kept shuffling names of publishers around like a deck of cards.  Which one would we try next?  Or should we change the order around again and try this or that one instead?

Along the way, two publishers (the Holman division of Lippincott, and Creation House) had heard about our project through connections with Nancy and had  approached us. But neither of them accepted the book after they looked at the outline, purpose, and sample chapters.  (Russell Hitt, Nancy’s colleague at Eternity magazine years earlier, was now also serving as editor for Holman/Lippincott, so had expressed interest in seeing our book proposal; and Creation House was the publisher of the 1972  Clouse, Linder, and Pierard book, The Cross and the Flag, in which Nancy had been invited to write a chapter titled, “Women and Evangelical Christianity.” )

All of the other publishers were those we ourselves contacted after looking up names in The Writer’s Market or The Writer magazine.  We never thought about contacting a literary agent because, at that time, unlike now, publishers were willing to consider unsolicited manuscripts.  Nancy and I took turns querying various publishers.

Holt, Rinehart and Winston—and a new friend

One of the first publishers we approached was Holt, Rinehart and Winston.  As the 1971 spring semester began at Indiana University, I was talking with my assigned advisor in the IU Religious Studies Department, Dr. William L. Miller, who was one of several professors who had made it possible for me to write large sections of our book as honors projects for independent study credit.  Dr. Miller asked me how the book was coming and who we planned to publish with.

As I described this meeting to Nancy afterwards, I wrote: “When I mentioned we were thinking of Holt, Rinehart and Winston as first choice this time, his eyes lit up and he said, ‘Well, we’ve had lots of contact with them.  Joe Cunneen, their religion editor is really great.’”

I said I knew that Dr. William F. May, our department chair, had published with Holt and asked if he were pleased.  Dr. Miller said he couldn’t have been more pleased with the editor and told me more about Mr. Cunneen, a Roman Catholic who was also editor of the prestigious religious journal, Cross Currents.

Encouraged and excited, I told Nancy:

[Dr. Miller] said with our topic (the religious angle on the woman issue) the book should sell without question. Anyway, he suggested we write to Mr. Cunneen and tell him he [the advisor] suggested him. So that gives us a little personal touch.  (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, Feb. 3, 1971).

And so I wrote to Joseph Cunneen and sent him our proposal package.  Although he said that Holt could not agree to publish the book (partly because they had recently published Elsie Gibson’s When the Minister Is a Woman and had been deeply disappointed by poor sales), Mr. Cunneen nevertheless took the time to write us a long evaluation of our project and its marketing prospects.  He offered to give us further advice any time that we wanted to contact him in the future.

I think one reason he was so helpful and understanding was that his wife, Sally Cunneen, had published a book about women’s questions and concerns in the Catholic Church a few years earlier (Sex: Female; Religion: Catholic, Holt, 1968). He had told us about that when we first contacted him, indicating that he was aware of our concerns about faith and feminism in a personal as well as scholarly way.

When I sent Joseph Cunneen’s gentle rejection letter on to Nancy, along with my own letter to her, I talked about the publishing industry in a way that sounds as though it were written today!

I’m wondering now if it would be best for us to continue as planned with another general publisher, or do you think we should contact Floyd Thatcher at Word?  Who will push it more is an important consideration—the book has to reach the audience we believe (and Mr. Cunneen believes) is out there somewhere!

There is also the problem that the publishing business in general is having a hard time right now. The faculty wife that I ate lunch with on Friday told me her husband’s publisher (Appleton) just laid off 20 members of the editorial staff, including her husband’s editor of the book he has in production. When this happened, my friend then called her sister who works for a literary agent in New York and she told her this is happening all over in the publishing business—that with the economic slump in general there seems to be panic in the book, magazine, and newspaper industries.

Also, Mr. Cunneen’s comments made me more aware of what rare specimens you and I are!  In a sense, we are writing for evangelical and conservative Christians, as he surmised (and they especially need the message, as we know!)—and there’s no getting around the fact that we’re taking a conservative approach to the Bible that is somewhat out of vogue in religious circles today; from our writing one would gather we don’t know higher criticism exists—which would cut out the possibility of our being sponsored by some large, major denomination as he suggested. However, on the other hand, what conservatives would claim us either? Other than Word, I can’t even think of  a “broadminded” religious publisher who would want us. Eerdmans probably wouldn’t push it. . . .

But I’m not discouraged. I still have great faith in our book and am sure we’ll find a publisher. But we must be praying that it will be the right publisher. Mr. Cunneen’s assessment should be helpful in thinking this over further, but time is passing quickly, and I’d like to send off the manuscript right away again. So please let me know as quickly as possible what you think. Where shall we send it again?  (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, March 23, 1971)

Nancy replied in a letter dated March 29, 1971. “In some ways, I would still like try Harpers but that’s more sentiment than sense,” she said.  At the same time, she believed that Word would probably advertise it more.  “I would say, send it to one of those two—the choice is up to you. I don’t really care which.”  She added that God would put it where God wanted it but that it might just take us a while to find exactly where that was.  “I’ll be praying,” she assured me.

I wrote back:

I plan to retype the covering letter tomorrow and send our stuff off again—and I’ll take your first suggestion and try Harpers.  Why not?  We said we wanted to try the New York publishers first, so let’s do. Our only problem is the time lapse—waiting 6 or 8 weeks each time. I hope we know something definite by summer so that we can really dig into the project earnestly.  (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, March 31, 1971)

“Ladies in Waiting”—for Harper!

At the beginning of April 1971, then, we sent the outline, sample chapters, and other information about our book to Harper & Row.   By October 1971, they had given us the go-ahead to send them the entire manuscript for consideration, which we did.   Our hopes were high.

Then we heard nothing further from them until March, 1972 when they wrote wanting major changes and asked us to reorganize the book drastically and condense it. They especially wanted us to delete much of the scholarly section about gender issues in the Bible, saying such information was available elsewhere, and told us to concentrate on the later sections because they felt those more practical chapters would be of more interest to women.

Nancy and I talked by phone on March 7, 1972.  We were totally surprised at the Harper request for what would amount to a major rewrite.  As Nancy and I brainstormed about it by phone and letter, Nancy suggested we might even discuss the possibility of writing two separate books: a practical one which seemed to interest the Harper editors and marketing people most and then a separate scholarly book. I agreed that this might be an option if no publisher wanted it whole—the way we planned it. “We just can’t let all that work go to waste!” I wrote to Nancy on March 9, 1972.

She replied:

If we wrote him [the Harper editor who had written to us] immediately, do you think we would have a reply by the time we get together the week of March 27?  Yes, and the world will turn to ice cream and they’ll declare my birthday a national holiday!  (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, March 14, 1972)

Nancy said she would write to Harper.  At the same time, she said she might approach Joseph Cunneen again (a year after we had first contacted him at Holt)—this time just for his opinion and advice as he had offered to provide at any time.  And so she send off some questions to him about Harper’s suggested changes at the same time as she wrote to Harper.  As before,  Mr. Cunneen replied graciously and helpfully, patiently answering our questions, and even seemed willing to leave the door open to possible consideration of our book again—although he didn’t feel he would be able to promote it to the extent it would need.

Responding to the Harper & Row rewrite request

In part of her reply to Mr. H. Davis Yeuell (then editor at Harper), Nancy addressed his comments about our chapters on biblical scholarship.  Nancy  asked, “Just how much deletion do you intend?”  She continued:

We have written a scholarly book and we would like to keep it that way.  Too often women’s intelligence has been insulted by homey, practical books which do not really grapple with the issues.  While we wish to be practically helpful in the final chapters of the book, we feel that among Christians this can only be done after one has made a strong biblical base against the stereotypes which have kept women in subjection. As one woman commented at a social gathering recently, “Why don’t Christian books about women treat some of these issues in depth? If they expect us to be thinking women, why don’t they give us some documentation?” In researching our book, we were often disappointed in other books on the subject because they gave us no sources for their information, no citations as to where we could dig deeper. We don’t want to do our readers this disservice.

And perhaps this leads to a related point which needs clarification. While we are women writing about “woman,” we have not intended to write a “woman’s” book.  We hope to speak directly and personally to biblical scholars, pastors, teachers—as well as to laymen and laywomen. We feel that the women who read McCall’s are basically intelligent enough and interested in delving into sophisticated biblical exegesis. While the manuscript can certainly be edited for further clarity and conciseness throughout, we would hate to simply delete the basic biblical argumentation. (Nancy Hardesty, letter to H. Davis Yeuell at Harper & Row, March 14, 1972)

Mr. Yeuell answered her by phone on April 12, 1972 and told her that ideally the book would be 120 pages printed or perhaps 160 at most.  Cost was the issue because more pages would mean a book would have to be sold for a higher price(say, $5.95 hardback), which would cut down on sales.  Nancy described the call further.

I tried to question him about his feelings about the extent of our scholarship and he replied that he was ambivalent on the issue, that at “one time” he really did see it as a “woman’s book.” And he noted that “If the book is weighted toward scholarly intent, then at the present time this would restrict sales.” He is not opposed to scholarly apparatus in a book—but of course that costs money (a key theme in the conversation!) (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha Dawson Scanzoni, April 12, 1972)

He told Nancy he couldn’t give definite answers about publishing it but would reply to both of us early the following week.

On April 24, 1972, after an entire year had gone by since we had first sent the query to Harper & Row and been given the go ahead, we each received a rejection letter.  I received the returned 350-page manuscript four days later.

“Well, now we know, don’t we?, “ Nancy wrote to me.  “I’m angry that they took so long, but really I’m very relieved that finally they have just said No and stopped beating around the bush.”  She went on:

I disagree with him [Mr. Yeuell], of course, that the material is available to most scholars—of course, everything is “available” or we wouldn’t have been able to dig it out—though in places our thought on the Bible is original. Yet “available” to be dug out and pulled together logically in one place are two different things. In this regard I think our book does a very valuable service. But maybe the pastors they would reach wouldn’t want this kind of serious, broad material. Maybe it is too technical in places.

What I wish is that before we wrote the book, someone would have been helpful enough to have told us what size is realistic. Then we could have tailored it to fit at that point. (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, April 26, 1972).

My feelings were similar to Nancy’s. When the returned manuscript arrived April 28,  I immediately wrote to Nancy: “I might call you tonight or tomorrow to see what you think we should do with it next!” I suggested we try Holt one more time, adding, “I really like Cunneen and his attitude.  What a contrast.”

I interacted, too, with Nancy’s reaction to Harper’s rejection letter.

I agree with you that Harper’s point about our scholarly material’s being “available” is far-fetched.  By that sort of reasoning nobody would have to write any scholarly books any more—since anybody could dig for hours searching the world over for the sources such books cite!  Also, you’re right—the way we put it together and our interpretations are unique, and many of our ideas are quite original. (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy Hardesty, April 28, 1972)

(Another aside here, as something struck me as I am looking through all these letters forty years later.  Harper’s argument that the biblical scholarship we had discovered and used in our research was “readily available” reminds me of a time many years ago when a woman asked me what kind of work I did.  When I said that I was a writer and wrote nonfiction, she asked what writers did—how they knew what to write about.  I told her about having ideas and questions about a topic and then researching that topic in various ways to gain new understanding.  Part of that involves going to a library and reading books and articles on different aspects of the topic, and then putting everything together with one’s own ideas, theories, and explanations to create an altogether new book or article.  It would then provide additional information and new ways of looking at the subject.   But her mind was still stuck back at my remarks about library research. Looking puzzled, she said, “But if it is already there in all those library books, I don’t understand why you have to write about it, too.”)

Needing guidance

After Harper’s having kept our manuscript out of circulation so long, we were back to square one in seeking a publisher.  But we decided to try Cunneen again, this time with the complete manuscript on the outside chance that Holt might change its mind about publishing the book.

In my April 28, 1972 letter to Nancy, I also acknowledged that our female socialization had no doubt kept us from being more assertive. Joseph Cunneen had alluded to that in his response to Nancy’s earlier letter asking his advice in view of Harper’s demands for what felt to us like an amputation of a section we viewed as essential and then wanting the book reconstituted into something that was not our intent.

I also resonated with what Nancy had said about our not having received manuscript-development guidance from Harper during the year they took to make up their minds. I wrote:

. . .[R]emember one reason we chose Harper was that The Writer market list included their statement that they are a publisher which likes to work with the author from start to finish. Yet they never used that partnership-team approach with us at all. In many ways, they acted much like Revell did with my first book. Which makes me realize I should have  learned some lessons by now!  Cunneen’s right; we were too retiring. We acted like women! Both of us were so busy with other projects and responsibilities—that was part of the problem I think. But we’ll know better next time. (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy Hardesty, April 28, 1972)

So I sent the manuscript to Holt.  And once again, as when we had approached Joseph Cunneen with the book idea in March 1971, he  was encouraging.  But also once again, he had to give us the bad news that Holt was still not willing to take a chance on the book.

Yet he took time to provide us with more wise advice, including pointing out an inconsistency in style that sometimes showed up in some of Nancy’s and my writing as we switched from intellectual discourse to chattiness.  And he suggested we create interest in the book in advance of publication by first writing up some of the chapters as magazine articles for a wide range of religious publications (conservative, middle-of-the-road, and liberal) and also for secular women’s magazines.

Nancy was still in Scandinavia when I received that letter from Mr. Cunneen.  As I summed up for her all that he had said in it, including his ideas of other possible publishers and his suggestion that we cut only 10% or so (far less than Harper wanted deleted), I added these words: “He appreciates our thorough research much more than anyone else has.” (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, dated July 18, 1972)

Nancy replied  from Copenhagen, Denmark, in crisp, pithy, abbreviated sentences to save space on the air mail stationery:

About Holt—I’m not surprised but I am sorry. I wish we could stop worrying about it. But we can’t. Of his suggestions on next try, I favor Fortress—they promote best, publish good books.  Eerdmans is second—good books but don’t sell. It’s too long and serious I fear for Word.  Friendship book [another book we had hoped to write] is more their bag. I still wish we could get secular publisher but seems hopeless.  (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, July 25, 1972)

Is Anybody interested?

In the next month or two, we sent letters and descriptive material to several publishers all at once, rather than one at a time, and told them what we were doing.  We said we just wanted to find out if any of them might be interested in looking at our manuscript.

Fortress chided us for that approach and said they would want exclusive rights to examine either the proposal or the manuscript for at least six weeks and would want our assurance that no other presses would be looking at it at the same time.  They pointed out that this was standard publishing procedure.

We had followed that standard, of course, with all our previous attempts to find a publisher;  but now time was rushing by, and we had had already had the experience of Harper’s having kept the manuscript out of circulation for an entire year and then rejecting it.

Fortress also felt that we shouldn’t base our approach on our interpretation of the Bible because the Bible could be used to prove anything and that many Christians, “both more conservative and more liberal,” would likely come to different conclusions than ours.  The Fortress editor at the time, Norman A. Hjelm, wrote, “Accordingly, it would seem to me that the value of your book would rest in later chapters rather than an attempt to make either a biblical or theological case for your point of view.” (From Norman Hjelm, Letter to Nancy Hardesty. August 29, 1972.)

Once again, we were being asked to concentrate on the practical parts of the book in which we discussed marriage and singleness, childbearing and childrearing, women in the marketplace and in church leadership positions, and so on—all good topics, of course, but without the biblical foundation that we believed was crucial for the evangelical audience we hoped to reach.

Feeling alone

Not only were publishers rejecting our ideas, but we felt very alone.   Finding other Christians who supported our view of gender equality seemed almost impossible within the conservative evangelical circles we identified with during the early 1970s.  The pastor of my church preached on male headship and female subordination, and the women in the church seemed to agree with him.  In the college Sunday school classes which I co-led with John and another man, I was told by this man that my teaching women that a Christian marriage could be egalitarian would make wives discontent and thus hurt marriages where the wife had been happily fulfilled in her subordinate role until I came along with these feminist ideas.

My pastor once  said in a sermon that he had just figured out why wives seemed so thrilled about going out for a  restaurant dinner.  “It gives them a chance to be waited on!”  he exclaimed, proud of the brilliant insight that had just struck him. It apparently never occurred to him that Jesus talked about serving others, even to the point of washing the feet of his disciples, and that perhaps husbands could “wait on” wives, just as they were expected to “wait on” husbands.

After I gave a talk at Trinity College in May, 1970, Nancy reported that it had been “very good for the campus,” but went on to tell me some of the student reactions:

I can’t say though that it was received with equanimity. As in most areas, the men are the more vocal and as one admitted, they were all very threatened by what you had to say. So the criticisms were often loud and vehement. Since there is not too much understanding of the Scripture involved, some had trouble following your arguments. They didn’t know the scriptures to which you were alluding, so they got lost. But some who got your point, did feel that you were threatening the authority of Scripture. . . .

But of course there were some gratuitous observations: “Children are enough for the women in my life. . . .” I gave a three-minute rebuttal about how long does it take to raise kids against the normal length of a woman’s lifetime. . . .All in all it was very much fun and I think they have begun thinking. Next fall should be even wilder. . . .

Incidentally, one other reaction to your talk from a guy who very obviously read his newspaper as a protest throughout it, was that although he thoroughly disagreed with the entire women’s liberation movement, he was glad that with all the serious problems around there was one cause that was sort of a farce, comic relief and all that. Glad he didn’t tell me that or I would have slapped him just to show how serious we are! (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, May 17, 1970)

Nancy frequently ran into such discussions in some of the seminary courses she was taking.  She said one professor “brought up a point about creation and proceeded to say that women were subordinate and thus were assigned less desirable tasks: e.g. he would rather be lecturing a class in theology than washing diapers, etc.”

He said that women were equal in personhood, but different in role—the same old garbage. So I raised my hand and we were into it. Out of 50 students only one guy really tried to help me out. The girls agreed with him [the professor]

My opening statement was something to the effect that to say women are equal yet subordinate is a plain contradiction by any use of the English language (yesterday morning I looked them up and in two dictionaries—in no way can they be used together, they directly contradict each other in all meanings). Anyway, one girl immediately said that she couldn’t see my point—that one applied spiritually and the other on earth! But we were talking about creation and he had agreed we were created equal. (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Jan. 10, 1971)

She went on to write more about the class discussion and then said:

Letha, I get scared! I can hold up my side in an argument like that but afterward I feel so drained and lonely. I’m glad I’m in this with you, because I sometimes think we’re the only Christians in the world who think women are in God’s image. Somehow I really don’t get upset about what people say about me in print, but in person it’s a different matter. When everyone else seems to be so certain of having “God’s truth,” I find it emotionally taxing to maintain that I too have the mind of Christ. But in praying about this on Friday, I did get some peace. (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Jan. 10, 1971)

Nancy&Letha, 1973scan0004 Nancy (l) and Letha (r) circa 1973.

Where were the other women like us?

In 1972, I too began voicing such feelings of standing alone with so few people who agreed with us, as I  wondered at one point whether maybe we should just go ahead and make the drastic changes the publishers seemed to want.

In a letter to Nancy, I referred again to our biblical scholarship and asked,“Can we really convince the theological world (mostly men) with what we feel is a solid apologetics-type thrust? Will they even listen to such a view?  My experience with my pastor and yours with the theology classes makes me wonder, if not actually despair.”

I continued with some ideas of how we might even totally rewrite the book if necessary.  I continued:

I know in some ways that sounds like a compromise or becoming untrue to our ideals. Yet, Nancy, I’m beginning to wonder. We wrote that book having in mind women “like us.” I’m beginning to wonder if there are many women like us! Actually, we know there aren’t—otherwise we wouldn’t have found it so difficult to find those of similar intellectual, spiritual, and personal interests over the years. That loneliness, that yearning to find other women who think as we do has been a problem over the years. (That’s why it’s so great that we found each other!) We tried to write a book which was basically evangelical (yet tried to be a bit broader than that), feminist, and intellectual. Maybe we just aimed between markets.  Eerdmans would be the closest perhaps to a publisher that tries some of these types of approaches. (Letha Dawson Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, July 25, 1972)

But Eerdmans turned us down, too.

And Nancy’s friend Russ Hitt of Lipponcott had also lent credence to what we didn’t want to face—that maybe it was true there weren’t many women “like us” and thus our book wouldn’t find an audience.  Russ Hitt had written that while we might not agree on the “traditional women’s market,” he could assure us there was one. He told Nancy, “But you are most unusual among my wide acquaintances. You have a grasp of theology that is not characteristic of many women I meet and attempt to talk to in theological terms. This may be changing, but not in a revolutionary way yet.” (Russell Hitt, letter to Nancy Hardesty, January 4, 1972)

Finally, Good News!

Then on August 27, 1972, in response to that query we had sent out to numerous publishers all at once to see if any of them had any interest at all in our project, we received a letter from Floyd Thatcher, the executive editor at Word Books in Waco, Texas.  He wrote:

I am intrigued by your letter of August 10 and the accompanying descriptive material. Word Books is ready for anything as far as the exploration of ideas in today’s society. For this reason, I most definitely would like to see this entire manuscript and react to it. Please send it along to my attention and we’ll try to get into it immediately, so as to give you an early response.   (Floyd Thatcher, letter to Nancy, August 27, 1972)

At last, perhaps we were on our way to publication!  But I’ll save the rest of the story for the next chapter.

Copyright ©  2011 by Letha Dawson Scanzoni

Part 4. Coauthoring “All We’re Meant to Be”—The Writing Process

by Letha Dawson Scanzoni

Introduction. Part 3 of this series left off at the point where Nancy Hardesty and I met for the first time in mid-November, 1969, immediately feeling that we had known each other for a long time.  During that visit, what would later be titled All We’re Meant to Be was taking shape in long fireside chats as we exchanged ideas on chapter content, research needed, and how we would divide the work. We knew that our writing styles were similar and that blending our material together would not be a problem.  Those two days together were enough to get the project going.

Personal benefits of the book project

After she arrived back home in Illinois, Nancy wrote:

Already I’m beginning to feel that the project is helping me straighten out some of my thinking.  Because of our discussions I feel more at home with myself; I’m beginning to want to plan ahead and do some things, not just drift (that lecture was really to myself and this grand resolve may not last long, but it’s a good start).(Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Nov. 22, 1969)

I wrote back:

It’s good to hear that you feel the project is helping you personally in outlook, attitude, plans, etc. I’m sure we’ll both find this to be true more and more as time goes on and further progress on the book is made. Then, having ourselves been open to things God wants to teach us in this regard, we’ll be able perhaps to pass on some help to other women—which, of course, is the whole point of writing such a book!  I can tell you share a similar concern, and this is one of several reasons why I feel we’ll work well together.  We’re not out to “prove a point” or “argue for women’s rights” but rather we want to help women to understand better what it means to be human beings made in God’s image and how they can best realize their full potential for [God’s] glory, for the good of society, for the benefit of loved ones, and for their own personal fulfillment. ( Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, Dec. 1, 1969)

In the letters exchanged after the visit, we also discussed the tone we wanted to have in our projected book.  We both agreed we would avoid sarcasm and bitterness in our writing, knowing that such accusations were often hurled at feminists by opponents of gender equality (who themselves didn’t hesitate to use invective language in their denunciations of feminism and feminists).

In her  Nov. 22  letter, Nancy had also shared more ideas about the content of the projected book. She suggested a chapter that would show: “1. what woman is not: sugar and spice, the weaker sex, a doormat, a fecund mother goddess, and then 2. what woman is, which is basically a human being in God’s image.”  She went on:

And maybe that image doesn’t include sex particularly at all.  Maybe that’s why God is described in images, metaphors that we say are both masculine and feminine.  Maybe that’s why there will be no marriage in heaven. . . .I guess what I’m trying to say is that everyone is in the image of God which contains all human characteristics and sexual differentiation is a secondary thing.  (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Nov. 22, 1969)

Scheduling the writing of the book

We knew we were undertaking a project that would require a huge investment of time and energy, and we were already living very busy lives.  “I made it to the library this week and got several more books.  Now if I can just get them read,” Nancy said in that letter . She continued:

We discussed deadlines—rather you brought it up and I avoided it. At least at the moment, I don’t see how I can get to serious writing before next a summer.  I have trouble reading one extra book a week and next semester may be worse with all the novels I’ll have to read for my lit class.  Does that sound too far away? (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Nov. 22, 1969)

Acknowledging Nancy’s full schedule of college teaching, grading, and then adding all the new research she was doing for the book, I wrote back:

About the matter of a deadline, I think both of us thought the other wanted to get the book done far sooner than is actually the case; thus, we’ve both avoided really facing a mutually satisfactory schedule
. . . . No, the summer doesn’t sound too far away. . . .Actually, I marvel at all you’ve been able to do on the project thus far . . . . I’ve appreciated your enthusiasm in plunging into this book-idea with such spirit. Already you have contributed a great deal, not only in a substantive way, but also in helping lift my sagging spirits.

I continued:

You’ve described your problems in finding adequate time to work on the book; now let me tell you mine. Then perhaps we can work out some sort of consensus to give us a tentative idea of when we should aim to have the book completed.  (1) As I mentioned to you, I write the junior high Sunday school materials for Union Gospel Press.  This is a lot of writing, eight quarterlies a year (four each of student and teacher books, and a little more than 200,000 words total—which is equivalent to writing four or five average length books each year). That in itself should be plenty to keep me busy, and sometimes I do get a bit under pressure handling the deadlines, especially at certain times when I’m juggling them with family responsibilities and social commitments. But by and large, I can handle it and should be able to fit in the writing of a book without too much difficulty. I was writing regular Sunday school curriculum materials—though not quite so extensively—while I wrote both of my last two books [Sex and the Single Eye, Zondervan, 1968; and Why Am I Here? Where Am In Going? Revell, 1966.  Revell had also published my first book, Youth Looks at Love, in 1964].  ( Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, Dec. 1, 1969)

I listed three reasons why I didn’t want to give up my position as a Sunday school lesson writer: (a) I saw it as a ministry, (b) it kept me studying the whole Bible in great detail, and (c) it provided some regular income without my having to take a job away from my home, thus making it possible for me to be available to the children when they came home from school, and also making it possible to offer a little financial help to my parents who were having some tough financial and health problems.

I then went on to tell Nancy that I had a second schedule problem that could really complicate things.

(2)  Believe it or not, I’m in the process of completing my college education. I had already made application to study in the Religion Department at I.U. [Indiana University] when you were here but didn’t mention it because I thought perhaps I wouldn’t go through with it—especially if we felt we should really dig into the book writing immediately. However, last week I had a most fruitful appointment with the director of admissions and was amazed that after looking at my Eastman and Moody transcripts he gave me far more credit than I had expected, plus encouragement to do as much independent study for credit as possible. So today I mailed in the final formal application forms, and my plans are to do as many courses as possible via correspondence this winter and begin classes in the Inter-session this summer [a semester course crammed into two weeks], then full-time in the fall. Thus, your idea of working on the book during the summer months will suit me very well!  ( Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, Dec. 1, 1969)

I went on to say how I had felt a restlessness and felt it was time to get busy on one of two projects I had wanted to do for a long time but had delayed: one was the “woman book” (with the growing conviction that I should invite Nancy to write it with me) and the other was to complete my interrupted education and pursue a degree in religious studies.  As I mentioned in my part of the original preface, quoted in Part 2 of this series, I asked the small group that met in our home on Sunday nights to pray with me about it, expecting the guidance to be toward one project or the other.

“I think it was more of a case of Abraham’s servant’s “I being in the way, the Lord led me” [Gen. 24:27 KJV] than it was of Gideon’s “putting out the fleece” [Judges 6:34-40], I told Nancy in that December 1969 letter, adding that I didn’t expect both projects to work out and that when they did I knew it meant very busy days ahead!  I wrote:

. . . .You mentioned that you’re beginning to see some purpose in your present state of singleness—and I think you meant the purpose of gaining real insight and experience which you can use to help other women through the book.  I look on my situation similarly and believe God has a purpose in it. The matter of the mature homemaker undertaking higher education is a much discussed subject today among educators and will continue to be even more so in the future. I think my seeing the challenge and problems of this from the standpoint of experience as well as theory can also be helpful in treating it in the book. At least, I hope I can approach this with such an attitude. In a lot of ways, what I’m doing isn’t easy and takes a certain amount of courage.  ( Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, Dec. 1, 1969)

Our frequent correspondence

And so the letters kept flying across the miles between Mundelein, Illinois, and Bloomington, Indiana.  We wrote to each other several times a week and sometimes daily, with many letters written on the same day and crossing in the mails. Nancy was very supportive of my educational pursuits, although I had to squeeze in writing time wherever I could find it, and it was not unusual of me to start a fairly long single-spaced 10-point typed letter with words like these:

I can’t take out much time to write right now—as much as I’d like to. I really have to do more work on that take-home exam (if I do poorly in a sociology course John’s liable to disown me!), and also I must put a meatloaf into the oven for dinner soon.  Then John wants me to go to a movie with him tonight—it will probably be a late show, since he teaches till 6 p.m. today.”  (Letha Scanzoni letter to Nancy, Oct. 28, 1970)

Or again:

If I were a “good little student,” I’d be using this hour of free time (before preparing dinner and the Friday night shopping list) to do another take home exam for social problems (this time on evils inherent in American foreign policy under the present setup.. . .). But save your lecture. I’ve already planned how I’ll write the test and it shouldn’t be a problem.  (Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, December 11, 1970)

Sometimes Nancy would tease me when I began letters that way.

First, I don’t know if I approve of your taking time to write me when you should be doing a take-home test. As a teacher, I should warn you about procrastinating. (But I’m glad you did it.) I trust you eventually got it done. Your other friends are right: How do you ever get it all done???  19 hours is more than we recommend. But as I say to my students:  You’ll make it!  ((Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, October 31, 1970)

I also was supportive of Nancy in her studies when in addition to her teaching of English and writing, she enrolled in  courses at the theological seminary associated with the college where she taught—and then again later when she moved to Chicago to earn a Ph.D. in the history of Christianity at the University of Chicago.

During this time, we were also writing our book chapter by chapter and seeking a publisher.  As our letters kept zipping back and forth, I told Nancy in the summer of 1971:

I’ve decided to just keep a sheet of paper in the typewriter and write little bits to you at odd moments. Otherwise, I don’t see how I’ll be able to answer your last two long, rich letters—and I want to very much, not only so that we’ll keep in contact (if time permitted, I don’t think I’d find it hard to write to you daily), but also so that we’ll have it all in writing.

I, too, have noticed how our file of letters has increased over the last year. It’s incredible. I sorted out our correspondence last week and would you believe it now occupies five [pocket] folders!  Again, I was amazed as I saw how much and how freely we have shared. I thought of a statement Joe Bayly made once in his column [in Eternity magazine]—something to the effect that Christians don’t take the time these days to really discuss things by letter, and how spiritually and intellectually enriching this can be. He was contrasting it with the great correspondences of various Christians of the past, I believe. Anyway, as I sorted out our letters into a better system of filing, it occurred to me that, while I’ve often wished (and still do) that you and I lived closer so that we could talk in person or on the phone often, it may be that one of God’s purposes in having us apart is that we do have to sort out our thoughts in a special way in order to commit them to paper, and that then we have this permanent record of the development of our thoughts (and our friendship) and we are able to look up how we’ve dealt with various issues, etc.  (Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, July 11, 1971).

We seldom talked by phone because long distance charges were exorbitant back then.  And there was, of course, no such thing as email for our correspondence,  nor computers for writing our book—just our trusty typewriters and carbon paper for copies.  Nancy&Letha,1971 Nancy was using an IBM Selectric at one point and a reconditioned IBM Model B later, and I totally wore out one manual typewriter (the letter “e” stopped working, which was a major handicap!) and then bought another manual typewriter—although a few times John brought home an electric typewriter from the university for short periods when he needed me to type some materials for his professional publications.  I could then use it for our letters and book project, too, during that short time.

Nancy and Letha shown here circa 1971

Our lives and correspondence: 1970-1973

What did Nancy and I talk about in all those letters?  Everything!   We were discussing the projected book, of course, but we knew it needed to emerge not only from our research and abstract ideas but from our lived lives as well.

We offered comfort and support to each other when both of our fathers died unexpectedly of heart attacks during those years (Nancy’s dad at age 58 in 1970 and mine at age 68 in 1972).

We shared the little things of everyday life, too.  Nancy would tell me anecdotes about her interactions with her students and faculty colleagues.  In addition to teaching, she was able to indulge her love of sports by moonlighting as a sports writer, putting her master’s degree in journalism to work in a way she hadn’t thought about before.  She accepted an opportunity to cover all seven Trinity College sports for local newspapers and press releases.

She sent me a copy of the April, 1973 issue of Trinity Today, a joint publication of the college and divinity school’s public affairs department which featured a profile of Nancy as “Trinity Sports Woman.” Along with the article was a series of photos of the expressions on her face as she covered a particular game (thoughtfully attentive, biting her lips, grimacing with an unspoken “ouch” at a bad move, and smiling as she wrote down something about the game that she wanted to share with readers).

One Saturday morning in 1971, she wrote of having had only five and a half hours of sleep, even though she had slept in until 11:30:

I’m still ready to say “Yeh, Lord!” this morning even though we spent 14 hours in a school bus yesterday, only to see our team defeated 6-0.  But I’m still proud of them.   This morning I picked up the Psalms and read 25:2 where it says “Save me from the shame of defeat. . .” It echoed almost exactly what the guys were saying last night.  We were defeated but there was no shame in it. We went against a much more powerful, talented team and played our best, but it just wasn’t good enough. Yet the Lord spoke to all of us in different ways through it.

I should start at the beginning—but it may not come out organized. Thanks for that clipping on “spilling out” and your words on friendship. It does mean so much to have someone to tell, share, all the little things that make life meaningful—especially someone who cares and loves and is concerned. Thank you for that privilege, thank you for listening.  (Nancy Hardesty, letter to Letha, Nov. 13, 1971).

I shared the everyday events of my busy life, too, during those packed-full years—teaching a Sunday school class, getting together with other families for picnics, working hard to balance my home responsibilities with all the other facets of my life—as a student and as a professional writer and speaker traveling around the country, along with fulfilling a contractual agreement to write a book on sex education in the Christian home (Sex Is a Parent Affair, first published by Regal in 1973 and later in a revised edition by Bantam Books in 1982).

Also in Nancy’s and my correspondence,I wrote a lot about my sons (who were ages 12 and 9 when Nancy and I started the book).  The boys loved her (and still do), and for a period of time (with her consent of course) she was listed in our will as the designated legal guardian if, while they were still minors, both parents were to die at the same time.  During one of her visits, she stayed with the boys while John and I were away on a short overnight trip.  As we were saying goodbye, Dave, the younger son, asked sadly, “But who will hug me while you’re gone?” And Nancy immediately swept him up in her arms and with a warm squeeze said, “I will.”

Dave & Steve,circa 1971

Off to Camp.  Dave and Steve, circa 1971

Nancy always enjoyed hearing their news about school, friends, camp, and other adventures.  As our book progressed, both Steve and Dave took great interest in it , discussed feminism with us, and even helped in various ways.

Sometimes anecdotes about one of kids served as a springboard for our discussions, as in this excerpt from a 1971 letter when Dave was age 10.  I wrote:

On David’s report card today the teacher attached a little note that I thought applied well to our subject. All the teachers gave David the highest grade (+) on his attitude and cooperation (he did well on his academic work, too), but the main teacher wrote: “David concedes a debated point gracefully. He seems to be in it for the fun or education of it rather than to prove a point or his manhood or something like that. It’s very pleasant.”  I think she meant in regard to discussions, debates, etc. But it struck me how different things might be if boys and men didn’t feel they had to “prove their manhood” but had confidence enough to be tender, considerate, and thoughtful; and if girls and women didn’t have to “prove their femininity” by appearing helpless, docile, etc. as we’ve said so often.”  (Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, June 9, 1971).

We also talked about the magazines and books we read and also articles we wrote individually for various periodicals during that period, and we were both thrilled when the first issue of Ms magazine was published in the spring of 1972.  We frequently clipped newspaper articles and enclosed them with our letters to help each other build our files of material useful for our book.

We talked about our respective marital states and learned from each other the joys, discouragements, and challenges of both singleness and marriage as they were perceived and presented in the U.S. at the time we were writing.  (I may share more about some of our exchanges on these topics in a  later post.)

The spiritual dimension of our work on the book

“Our spiritual communion is most deep.” Nancy wrote in a letter dated August 26, 1973. “As you said probably not many co-authors, even Christian ones, have prayed over their work as much as we have. Our dedication service was so beautiful and meaningful. I find myself thinking again and again of it.”

She was referring to a private ritual the two of us held together as we dedicated the book to God before taking the package containing the complete manuscript to the post office.  At last we had found a publisher (and the book would be out a year later in August 1974), and we wanted to commit the works of our hands, hearts, and heads to God.

Throughout our writing of the book, we shared with each other what God was teaching us from Scripture and in our own lives.  For a time, we did Bible studies together by enclosing with our letters our thoughts on a book of the Bible (we went through Philippians that way) or on a particular theme ( in which each of us would type out for the other a compilation of the Scriptures we had found on particular topics:  meditations on loving God, on loving others, on temptation, and other subjects).

When we visited each other, we always had times of praying and reading Scripture together.  Sometimes we included the lighting of a candle, making wherever we were seem even more set apart as a sacred space. Sometimes we included a private sharing of the Lord’s Supper together.  (Even though at the time, Nancy was Episcopalian and I was Presbyterian, we believed that when Jesus spoke of being in the midst of two or three gathered together in his name or said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” it didn’t require an ordained clergy person to consecrate the bread and wine.  And I was used to having such services with the small group of Christian couples and singles who met in my home on Sunday evenings.) These times were always deeply meaningful to both of us.

Nancy with flower,1973.scan0005 When Nancy visited me in Bloomington, one of our favorite places for talking and working on our book, as well as for prayer, Bible study,  and communion, was in the out of doors.  We loved to drive to state parks or to a lake for the afternoon. I snapped this picture of Nancy  during one of those outings in the summer of 1972 or 1973.

Humor

We were by no means always serious and often displayed a sense of humor in our letters.  We had plenty of laughs, too, during visits.  I remember one time when Nancy was visiting, my husband had to leave for a conference or speaking engagement, and before he left he told us, “Now don’t forget to put out the trash cans the night before garbage pick-up day.”  He reminded us several times.  But wouldn’t you know, the night before garbage pick-up day, we were engrossed in working on the book until about three o’clock in the morning.   Suddenly we were startled to hear a truck and the banging of metal.  “Oh, the garbage!” one of us said.  We had totally forgotten to put out the garbage cans!  “John is really going to be upset because now it won’t be picked up for a week!” I said.  “I forgot that they sometimes come before sunrise!”

So we rushed to the garage, after hurriedly picking up some waste baskets along the way to empty more trash into the  cans, but by then the truck had passed our house and the houses nearby and was part way up the hill.  We each grabbed a heavy garbage can (how we found the strength, I don’t know) and ran up the hill after the truck, trying to get the workers’ attention.  Finally, they saw us and were able to take the cans.  They must have been totally surprised and puzzled to see two women chasing after them in the middle of the night!  Nancy and I had a good laugh and a good story to tell later.

And in one letter, I told one of my strange dreams (for which I’ve had a reputation, since I remember most of them the next morning).  This one showed how our work on the book had permeated even my subconscious.  I wrote:

I had a weird dream last night (don’t I always??)—one brief one about a cow who wanted to leave her calf and go off on a career on her own!  At another point I dreamed I was talking to Paul Thompson [the child of some friends] and he was only 2 or 3 and was pounding on a nail and saying, “Pounding nails is what men do, isn’t it?”  Whereupon I dreamed I burst into a long lecture on roles: “No, Paul, it’s not what men do—it’s what persons do,  Men can pound nails and so can women. Women bake cookies, but so can men.  Persons do things, not men or women.”  I must have been in a fighting feminist mood last night, though I don’t know why—can’t recall any reading or conversation that would have brought that on!  But I don’t know.  The night before, I dreamed we bought a pet camel!  It was a problem keeping it in the yard, but the kids enjoyed riding it!”  (Letha Scanzoni, letter to Nancy, July 25, 1972)

And then I went into a discussion about a Psychology Today article I had read on dreams.

Seeking a Publisher

In 1970, we decided to start looking for a publisher.  Little did we know how hard it would be to find one and how long it would take!  But we’ll talk about that in the next post in which I’ll share a letter I wrote to Dr. Paul Jewett about how difficult it was to get our book into print.

Copyright 2011 by Letha Dawson Scanzoni