As I have been recounting the story behind Nancy’s and my 1974 book, All We’re Meant to Be, I have not shared with readers the backstory of the backstory. That’s why I’m now inserting this interlude between Parts 6 and 7 In May 2009, Nancy Hardesty was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And as 2011 began, [...]

Continue reading about Interlude: In Memory of Nancy A. Hardesty, 1941-2011

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 [...]

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

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 [...]

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

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 [...]

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

by Letha Dawson Scanzoni Introduction. After Nancy Hardesty’s October 14, 1969  response to Letha Scanzoni’s October 7 letter inviting Nancy to collaborate in writing a book tentatively titled “The Christian Woman’s Liberation”  (See Part 1), Letha wrote a four-page reply suggesting how the two might get the project underway. See excerpts from the correspondence below. [...]

Continue reading about Part 3. Coauthoring “All We’re Meant to Be”—The Coauthors Meet

by Letha Dawson Scanzoni (Copyright 2011 by Letha Dawson Scanzoni) Before I continue with the backstory of All We’re Meant to Be, I am reproducing below what Nancy  Hardesty and I wrote in our respective essays for the preface in the first edition (Word Books, 1974).  Both essays not only sum up in more concise [...]

Continue reading about PART 2. Coauthoring “All We’re Meant to Be”— Original 1974 Prefaces Revisited

Introduction:  The book, All We’re Meant to Be by Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty, published by Word Books in 1974, is considered to have been a major factor in launching the biblical feminist movement in the 1970s. During Christianity Today magazine’s 50th anniversary of publication (2006), the magazine’s staff listed All We’re Meant [...]

Continue reading about PART 1. Coauthoring “All We’re Meant to Be” —The Beginning

by Letha Dawson Scanzoni Copyright 2010, Letha Dawson Scanzoni Author’s note: Various scholars of feminist religious history have frequently referred to two articles I wrote for the evangelical magazine Eternity during the 1960s.  These articles, “Woman’s Place: Silence or Service” (1966) and “Elevate Marriage to Partnership” (1968), are considered to be some of the first [...]

Continue reading about Backstory: “Elevate Marriage to Partnership”(1968 Eternity article)

by Letha Dawson Scanzoni Numerous scholars of feminist history have referred to my February 1966 article for Eternity Magazine, citing it as one of the first evangelical or biblical feminist articles to be published during the “second wave” feminist movement that began in the 1960s.  Because of this interest, I want to correct some misinformation [...]

Continue reading about Backstory: Woman’s Place—Silence or Service?