Howard and
Anna Brinton are best known as Quaker educators, or as Dan Wilson called them
somewhat grandiloquently, “translucent teachers and ministers of the Light.” For sixteen years, during
the 1930s and 40s, they served as co-directors and teachers at Pendle Hill, the
Quaker center for study and contemplation near Philadelphia. After retiring,
they lived on campus and continued to teach there for the rest of their lives,
where they modeled what it meant to teach in the manner of Friends.
Before coming to Pendle Hill, a unique
experiment in Quaker education, the Brintons both had highly successful careers
in academia. Howard studied at Haverford, Columbia, Harvard and received his
doctorate from Berkeley. He served as an interim president of Guilford College
and taught at Pickering, Mills College and Earlham. Anna’s achievements were
equally, if not more impressive. She earned her doctorate in Classics from
Stanford at age thirty, served as department head at Mills, an elite women’s
college in northern California, and taught with Howard at Earlham. But
something about conventional education did not satisfy the Brintons. They were
looking for something different, something that would enable them to put their
Quaker faith into practice.
Howard and
Anna taught at Woodbrooke in England and were intrigued by this alternative
Quaker institution of higher education. When he heard of an opening at Pendle
Hill, Howard decided to leave Mills College in 1934 to serve as a temporary
director and lecturer at this fledging Quaker school that was part seminary,
part intentional community, and part think tank.
“To persons as long identified with the
standardized academic field as ourselves,” wrote Howard, “an institution which
does not readily fit into the American educational mechanism might seem
problematical if not quixotic.”
Modeled after Woodbrooke, Pendle Hill was birthed
at a difficult time (1929), but with great expectations for its future. Its
first director was Henry Hodgkin (1877-1933), a Quaker missionary to China,
peace activist, and one of the founders of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. A
convert to the “Social Gospel,” Hodgkin was deeply concerned with the social
issues of his time as well as with the spread of authentic Christian
principles. Summoned to the United States by American Friends, he left China at
age 58 and became Pendle Hill’s first director in 1930. In two years he placed
his personal stamp on what he called a “haven of rest, a school of the
prophets, a laboratory of ideas, a fellowship of cooperation.” Because of ill
health, he didn’t last long in his position, however. He died on March 26, 1933,
in a Dublin, Ireland, nursing home. But he
left behind a legacy of fearless inquiry into social issues. The results of one
of Pendle Hill’s first courses taught by Henry Hodgkin was published as Seeing Ourselves Through Russia; a book for
private and group study (New York: R. Long and R.R. Smith, 1932).
Pendle Hill can be seen as part of the pacifist
effort to form alternative schools and cooperative living models that would
challenge the mainstream culture of violence of militarism. As Appelbaum explains:
A number of educational experiments with close
connection to pacifism also fed into the cooperative-living movement. Brookwood
Labor College, founded in 1919 in Katonah, New York, aimed to apply “Christian
principles to the use of property, community living, and education.” Under the
leadership of A.J. Muste [who later taught at Pendle Hill], from 1921 to 1933,
it specialized in the training of labor leaders. Pacifists such as John Nevin
Sayre and Sarah Cleghorn, as well as many lesser lights, taught at Brookwood,
and members of similar schools were subsequently established.
When Howard came to Pendle Hill, the acting
director was Richard Gregg, author of Training
for Peace, and one of the leading pacifist theorists of this period. Gregg
saw pacifism as a “way of life” rooted in practices that included discussion,
folk music, meditation, simple cooperative living, and service.
When Howard became acting director of Pendle
Hill, he shared many of Gregg’s concerns, some of which are reflected in his inaugural
lecture, “A Religious Solution to the Social Problem” (PH #2, 1934). “This was
an attempt to bring into one the two principal interests at Pendle Hill,
religion and social reform,” recalled Howard. “I have followed this ever
since.”
In this work Howard diagnosed the chief problem
of his day as the inability of the individual to find a healthy relationship
with his community. People are drawn either to excessive individualism (which
glorifies the individual, isolates us from our community, and leaves us feeling
spiritually empty and isolated) or to secular totalitarianism (which binds us
to group consciousness and makes us prey to social control). In Howard’s view,
people in modern secular society have lost their feeling of genuine connection
with their community because they have lost a sense of something greater than
the individual self. As a result, people lack a sense of inner worth and seek
to find meaning and purpose in their lives by joining a secular cause, such as
Communism or Fascism, that lead to alienation or war. Such causes end up
stifling rather than fulfilling the individual’s deepest needs. The other
extreme is renunciation of the world—going off to live in a monastery.
Howard proposes a third alternative, a
“religiously integrated” community of individuals who are bound together by a
common experience of unity, and yet respect each other’s individuality. In
Howard’s view, the goal of Pendle Hill was to create this kind of “religiously
integrated group.” Such a group would model how human beings could get along
together by simplifying their lives and living together cooperatively.
More will be said later about Howard’s views on
society and social relations, but for now one picture expresses more than
thousands of words. In an annual Christmas letter dated December 1939,
beautifully drawn by Anna, Howard explained social development and “what makes
men live together peaceably” with a light touch of humor. Rhyming couplets explain the six stages of society:
tribalism, liberalism, anarchism, utopianism, super-humanism, and “on earth as
in heaven.” Each stage is illustrated with a geometric design showing how human
beings relate to each other on both a horizontal and vertical plane. At the
bottom of the picture are Anna’s drawings of various family members, each with
his favorite pet. Anna is shown feeding her chickens, Mary and Martha; Howard
is shown holding two rabbits and gazing fondly towards his family. This letter
illustrates how the Brintons managed to integrate teaching, family life and the
mission of Pendle Hill into a delightful and instructive whole.
Anna was no doubt a factor in Pendle Hill’s
decision to hire Howard as director. When she arrived just before Christmas in
1934, she made a very strong initial impression, as this Log entry makes clear
(with some Quaker humor):
Anna Cox Brinton arrived today from California
with three children; established the family at Pendle Hill, visited two sets of
grandmothers and cousins, changed the children from California wardrobes to
Pennsylvania ones, obtaining two extra coats apiece just by momentum, prepared
a Christmas entertainment with festivities and gifts for filling stockings for
all the Pendle Hillers left behind, wrote a paper on the ‘Illustrated Editions
of Horace,’ and packed her suitcase for Toronto.
Anna proved to be a very effective teacher and
had the ability to get along with a wide variety of people, including a rather
stodgy and conservative Friend named Henry Bartlett, who has originally opposed
the idea of forming Pendle Hill, but was willing to co-teach a class with Anna.
Anna attracted students from Westtown, her alma
mater, and gave talks on Chinese art that were well received. She became
friends with a local Quaker art teacher named George Whitney and his wife
Janet, who wrote biographies of Elizabeth Fry and other notable women.
When Anna and her family left Pendle Hill, the
community sent her off with a humorous ballad expressing its affection:
Over valleys, over
mountains
With
her clan came Clementine,
Came to wake us, stir and shake us,
Make
us all snap into line.
Chinese art and Chinese idols,
Buddhist
sculpture and design
Would have floored us or have bored us,
Save
as taught by Clementine.
Summoned hither, summoned thither,
She
could never quite decline,
And her speeches (which were peaches)
Numbered
nine and ninety-nine.
Now those days are gone forever,
We
are left to wail and pine,
Must she leave us, sadly grieve us,
Our
beloved Clementine.
The Brinton clan left Pendle Hill, but not
forever. Soon afterwards Howard was asked to be director of studies, and Anna
director of administration. They were to begin in the fall of 1936.
Upon their arrival at Pendle Hill, they were
pleased to learn that the Board of Managers had made plans to build them a new
home. When Anna saw the plans, however, she “radically altered them to resemble
[their] home at Mills College.”
She named the house “Upmeads” from a medieval fantasy novel by William Morris
entitled The Well at the World’s End.
Little known or read today, this work was much beloved by C.S. Lewis and J. R.
R. Tolkien. Howard quotes the passage that inspired Anna:
They had but little world’s wealth save and
except good meat and drink, and enough or too much thereof; house-room of the
best, fair friends to be merry with and maidens to kiss, and these also as good
as might be, freedom withal to come and go as they would; the heavens above
them; the earth to bear them up, and the meadows and acres, the woods and fair
streams, and the little hills of Upmeads for that was the name of their
country.
Life at Pendle Hill was not as idyllic as this
beautiful passage implies. At this time Pendle Hill was a struggling
institution with only a handful of students. It took tremendous faith and
courage for Howard and Anna to leave the comforts of their tenured academic
life at Mills College and move to Pendle Hill. Living conditions at Pendle Hill
were relatively primitive. Funds were scarce and future prospects uncertain.
The directors not only had to teach, they also had to raise funds, recruit
students and faculty, and even do chores, like cooking, changing the beds,
taking care of the plumbing and making repairs. Students also participated in
these tasks as part of their educational and spiritual discipline since at Pendle
Hill there was not supposed to be a sharp line drawn between students and
staff.
While Upmeads was being built, the Brintons
lived in various small apartments at Main House and “The Barn,” a stable that
had been converted, thanks to the frugal Quaker spirit, into living quarters, a
place of worship, and offices.
After
moving into their new house, Howard set to work cleaning up the grounds,
preparing a lawn and planting a number of trees.
“Some still stand,” recalled Howard proudly. “I
also constructed a new road by building it up with ashes. This road is still in
use.”
Howard loved handy work and one of his first
acts upon moving to a new house was to set up a tool shop in the basement of
Upmeads so he could repair furniture and other objects.
“The Pendle Hill chairs were frequently breaking
down [so] I was [often] busy repairing them,” Howard recalled. “I also built a
stone fireplace for cooking outdoors.” Just so no one would doubt who built it,
he added, “A stone on it was marked 1932. This came from an older place.”
According to Howard, his “largest and most
important accomplishment at Pendle Hill was to institute a method of tutoring
the students individually.” At that time, most colleges and universities in the
United States used the lecture mode of instruction and a course of study that
was standardized—or as Howard would say, “mechanized.” Howard adopted a system
similar to the practice at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England, where
each student has an individual tutor. Howard used the tutorial method as well
as the lecture mode. Students met individually with Howard each week, and were
expected to write a term paper.
“At the beginning of my interviews many students
would declare that they had no special interest about which they could write,”
recalled Howard. “But I assumed that everyone has some special interest which
can be discovered. It might appear at first like a passing fancy. . . . Every
person needs some ideas around which his life can be integrated and given
meaning and purpose.” The job of the teacher, in Howard’s view, was to help
students discover that idea.
Howard spent two days a week conducting these
interviews, but he also observed boundaries. If students wanted to talk about
personal problems, he sent them to Dora Wilson, who had the ability and the
calling to deal with such issues.
Howard was proud of the fact that students often
produced memorable works, many of which did not fit into the traditional
academic mold.
“One term paper developed into a novel which was
published,” recalled Howard. “A brilliant Japanese girl read a paper on Zen.
She said she didn’t want to have it preserved because she wanted to be like a
fish that did not leave any path behind in the water. Some papers were
collections of poems. Some were dramatic and could be acted. Others appeared
only as pottery, weaving and drawing.”
These productions were shared with the
community, often with tea and other refreshments.
“This process of teaching through term papers
lasted more than twenty years,” Howard observed. “It was gradually given up by
my successors, though occasionally term papers were still written and read to
the Pendle Hill community.”
Anna made an important contribution to the
academic life of Pendle Hill through her persuasive skills. A prominent Quaker
named T. Wistar Brown bequeathed an endowment to Haverford to establish a
graduate school of religion. This school lasted from around 1925-35, but was
laid down in part (Howard believes) because Haverford did not wish to grant
degrees to women in this department. When it was decided to discontinue this
graduate school, a large meeting took place at Haverford Meetinghouse to
discern what to do with this bequest. During this meeting it was proposed that
Pendle Hill might carry on the work that T. Wistar Brown had wished to promote.
The idea didn’t gain much favor, so Anna decided to visit President Comfort of
Haverford and see if she could persuade him to let Pendle Hill continue the
work of the T. Wistar Brown School. Her idea was to let students live at Pendle
Hill and take some of their classes at Haverford College. President Comfort
liked this idea, so Anna traveled about mostly to Quaker colleges looking for
likely candidates. Of the students she found, Haverford selected four.
“In this way Pendle Hill secured each year four
first-class students,” recalled Howard. “They prepared good term papers and
acted as pace setters for the other Pendle Hill students. Although these four
studied at Haverford, they were very loyal and cooperative members of the Pendle
Hill community. They felt more attachment to Pendle Hill than to Haverford.
When they returned to the area for visits, they usually visited Pendle Hill
rather than Haverford.”
Even though academic work was important, at
least to Howard and Anna, Pendle Hill was conceived not as an academic
institution, but rather as a spiritual community that “seeks to heal the inward
confusion that is so great a part of the world’s outward confusion.” It had
qualities of a monastery, graduate school, think tank, and settlement house.
While its primary purpose was to nurture contemplation and study, Howard noted
that “members are encouraged to undertake regular field work, often in
connection with some local agency, provided this does not interfere with their
main objective in coming to Pendle Hill.” Opportunities for such field work
were readily available in nearby Chester, a working class community with its
share of needy indigents.
Situated in a tranquil rural setting, Pendle
Hill became in many ways the Mecca of the American Quaker world. During the
1940s and 50s, Clarence Pickett, the executive secretary of the American
Friends Service Committee, lived in a neighboring house built by the AFSC for
its director. American Friends Service Committee volunteers and staff
frequently came to Pendle Hill for training and debriefing. There
was also a steady stream of lecturers, visitors, and conference attendees at
Pendle Hill then as there are today.
Pendle Hill endeavored to help students balance
social activism with inward spiritual development, a goal of Quakerism since
its earliest days. Activists would come to Pendle Hill for spiritual rest and
relaxation, sometimes turning to pottery or gardening as a way of centering
down. People going through life crises would go to Pendle Hill and find new
direction and purpose for their lives. The goal was to help people to find
inner peace and to become involved in social betterment.
Howard quotes the familiar line of William Penn
to explain Pendle Hill involvement in progressive political causes, such as the
labor movement: “True godliness does not turn men out of the world but enables
them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.” Classes were
offered in such “radical” subjects as labor relations and cooperative ventures,
led by activist scholars such as Howard Haines Turner. The International Ladies
Garments Workers also met on the Pendle Hill campus.
The focus of study
during the Brintons’ second year as directors at Pendle Hill (1937-1938) was on
“two major inquiries:) The Function of
Religion in Social Change and (B) The Problem of War and its Solution.”
According to Howard, “these two subjects represent the inner and outer aspects
of a single problem; how can a better social order be attained without resort
to violence?”
Tall (six-foot-five),
athletic offspring of an old Quaker family in Northeast England, Hodgkin began
his career as an evangelical Friend. A turning point in Hodgkin’s life came
when he made friends with the Kaiser’s chaplain at the onset of World War I and
they swore eternal friendship. When Hodgkin wrote a paper defending pacifism
for a Lambeth conference of Christians and I was rejected, he decided to form a
group called the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1914. Thus began his career as
peace activist. For a good brief biography of Hodgkin, see Kenworthy’s Living in the Light.
The Pendle Hill Idea, PH Pamphlet #55, 1951, centerfold.
Henry Cadbury said,
“For my own part, I always regarded the Service Committee and Pendle Hill as
the obverse and reverse of the same good currency of American Quakerism” (Ibid, p. 47).
Pendle Hill Bulletin, Number 13, January 1937.
