Robert Coles is professor emeritus at Harvard University and the author of numerous books, including his Children of Crisis series, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Over a period of five decades, this psychiatrist, teacher, and documentarian has written profiles of extraordinary writers, artists, philosophers, and activists. Editor David D. Cooper has gathered together 13 of these for this special volume. In the introduction, he praises Coles for creating a unique genre that blends biography, criticism, and memoir. Both would agree with Albert Schweitzer who once wrote:
"The older we grow, the more we realize that true power and happiness comes to us only through those who spiritually mean something to us. Whether they are near or far, still alive or dead, we need them if we are to find our way through life. The good we bear within us can be turned into life and action only when they are near to us in spirit."
In the first of four sections, Coles writes about individuals who had an immense impact on his career and thinking: the developmental psychologist Erik H. Erikson, the child psychologist Anna Freud, the poet and doctor William Carlos Williams, novelist Walker Percy, and Catholic activist Dorothy Day. These teachers and mentors left their marks on the soul of Robert Coles and his praise of them is commendable.
In the second section, he pays tribute to the writer James Agee, novelist and short story writer Flannery O'Connor, photographer Dorothea Lang, and rock singer Bruce Springsteen. In the last one, he is appreciative of the Boss's ability to get people to examine themselves and others through his rollicking music.
The book closes with profiles of two philosophers: Simone Weil and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and an "Old One" (Una Anciana) and a "Young One" (Ruby Bridges who was a key figure as a little girl in the Civil Rights movement). Throughout these essays Coles encourages us to deepen and expand our definition of "moral courage."
