Review of At Play in the Lions’ Den, A Biography and Memoir of Daniel Berrigan by Jim Forest

Authors

William L. Portier, University of Dayton

Abstract

In 1957 Daniel Berrigan (1921-2016), a thirty-six-year-old Jesuit priest, about to begin teaching New Testament at Lemoyne College in his hometown of Syracuse, New York, published his first book. A book of poetry entitled Time Without Number, it won the Lamont Poetry Award and was also nominated for a National Book Award. At the time, he realized that, "Publishers would now take almost anything I chose to compile; the question of quality was largely in my own hands and my own sense of things" (47). In the next four years, he published two more books of poetry and two books of essays. Poetry and writing were only one facet of this extraordinary spirit’s gifts. As his younger friend, the Jesuit artist William Hart McNichols put it, Dan Berrigan had been given the "ambiguous favor" of the "Joseph coat" (257).

Recommended Citation

Portier, William L. (2018) "Review of At Play in the Lions’ Den, A Biography and Memoir of Daniel Berrigan by Jim Forest," The Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, 96-101.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol2/iss1/9