The Walter Lowrie Papers consist of autobiographical material and other works such as manuscripts of books, sermon outlines, prayers, articles and essays; correspondence with family during the time Lowrie was in Europe (especially letters to his mother), but also correspondence with friends and colleagues, particularly Howard A. Johnson, a long-time friend and executor of his estate; photographs of religious art presumably used for his books; documents including certificates and agreements with book publishers; printed matter including reprints of published works; papers and other material by Howard A. Johnson, and a thesis by Donald H. Fox, the original processor of this collection, entitled "The Long Life of Walter Lowrie."
Range of Collection Dates: 1870-1978
Range of Collection Bulk Dates: 1893-1959
Size: 21 linear ft.
Provenance: Material was donated to Princeton over the years by Lowrie; after his death in 1959 his wife, Barbara Armour Lowrie, and executor of his estate Howard A. Johnson continued to donate his works. Other material was the gift of Mrs. R. W. Ketcham.
Photocopying, literary rights, and citation: No photocopies may be made from the photocopies (Xeroxes, photostats) of material in the collection where Princeton University Library does not own the originals; however, single photocopies of original material may be made for research purposes. permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections. The Library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection, and researchers are responsible for determining any question of copyright. Citations should be as follows: Walter Lowrie Papers, Box #, used by permission of the Princeton University Libraries.
Processing: Donald Hardie Fox first processed the Walter Lowrie Papers in 1976, and created a detailed finding aid. However, at the discretion of the manuscripts curator, the correspondence series was re-processed, organized into an alphabetical format instead of numerous different categories as it had been previously. This new arrangement allows for greater clarity and accessability. The rest of the series remain as Donald Fox arranged them except that the boxes have been re-grouped to keep a logical order to the series. They have also been re-numbered; therefore, the finding aid by Donald Fox is not useful for locating correspondence in the collection, although it is still valuable from a research and processing perspective.
Walter Lowrie, Episcopal clergyman, author, and biographer, was born on April 26, 1868, in Philadelphia to Samuel Thompson Lowrie, a clergyman, and Elizabeth Albertine Dickson. From 1879 to 1886 he attended Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, and entered the freshman class at Princeton College in the fall of 1886. He graduated in 1890 and went on to Princeton Theological Seminary, obtaining a master's degree in divinity in 1893. During 1893-1894 he studied abroad at Greifswald and Berlin, Germany, Florence, Italy, and Vevey, Switzerland. In 1894, he returned to America and entered the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. On June 9, 1895, he was made Deacon of that church and spent the next two months, July and August, assisting at St. Hubert's Church, Keene Valley, New York, inaugurating his long tenure there as a summer minister. Summers from 1895 to 1906 were spent, wholly or in part, ministering at this church.
Lowrie spent his second academic year abroad (1895-1896) at the American School for Classical Studies in Rome. He returned to Philadelphia the following year to become the Curate of St. James Church, a position he would hold for two years. In the winter of 1896, two days after Christmas, he became an ordained priest. In 1898, he left St. James for the Philadelphia City Mission.
Lowrie's third academic year abroad came in 1899, again at the American School for Classical Studies in Rome. It was also the year of his first publication, Doctrine of St. John. In 1900, Lowrie returned from Rome and studied in Princeton, living with Dr. Francis Patton while he prepared his second book, Monuments of the Early Church (published in 1901). From 1901 to 1903 he was with the City Mission in Philadelphia and served at various parishes: from December 1900 to February 1901, as an interim pastor at St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, Pa.; during February-April 1901, as a lenten preacher at Cavalry Church, New York City; in September 1902, as an interim pastor at St. John's Church, Paul Smith's, New York; and during October and November 1902, as an interim chaplain at St. George's School, Middletown, R.I.
The following years, 1903-1907, were spent serving brief periods at various churches. Lowrie was Rector of Trinty Church in Southwark, Pa. He was the Curate of Emmanuel Church in Boston, Mass., from 1904 to 1905. The following two years, 1905-1907, he returned to Trinity Church in Newport, R.I., to be the Rector.
Lowrie spent the next twenty-three years, 1907-1930, as the Rector of St. Paul's American Church in Rome, breaking the interim occasionally to serve as exchange pastor, such as his one-year term (1912-1913) as exchange pastor of Christ Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, and another (1922-1923) as exchange pastor of Cavalry Church in New York. In March of 1929, Lowrie began his first sermons on Kierkegaard, and in May of the following year he delivered the last sermon of his 23-year ministry in Rome. At the time, he was quoted as saying, "In leaving Italy I have given up much that is agreeable to me but I have gained my own soul."
The year 1930 may have marked the end of Walter Lowrie's career as Rector of St. Paul's American Church in Rome, but the next two decades brought so much productivity that clearly Lowrie's life was merely in transition: one chapter was closing while another was opening. In June 1930, Lowrie returned to Princeton to begin an "itinerant ministry." In 1930, he began to lecture on Barth and Soren Kierkegaard. During the years 1932-1933, he traveled to China and Japan to lecture on Kierkegaard. In December 1933, at the age of sixty-four, he began to study Danish. In the ensuing years, between 1934-1937, he was constantly translating Kierkegaard, and in June 1937 his first biography on Kierkegaard was finished (published in 1938). In June of 1938, the first two volumes of translations of Kierkegaard were completed (published in 1941). Between the years 1939-1944, twelve volumes of Kierkegaard translations were published. In January 1942, his second biography of Kierkegaard, A Short Life of Kierkegaard, was finished and published that same year. From April 1944 to March 1945, he was the Episcopal Chaplain at Princeton University.
In October 1952, Lowrie assumed the duties as Secretary of the Class of 1890. In August 1954, the last translations of Kierkegaard were finished; they were published in 1955. On August 1, 1958, the preface to the paperback edition of Art in the Early Church appeared. On November 21, 1958, his last "Class of 1890" column was printed in the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Lowrie died at Princeton Hospital on August 12, 1959.
Walter Lowrie married Barbara Armour in Princeton on February 19, 1918, at Trinity Church. They had no children.
Scope Note
Contains biographical material, works, correspondence, scrapbooks, and printed material of Lowrie (Class of 1890), as well as papers of Canon Howard A. Johnson who acted as executor of Lowrie's estate. Included are manuscripts of three books by Lowrie, A Short Life of Kierkegaard (1942), The Enchanted Island (1953), and The Soul of Plants (1957); articles, addresses, prayers, and sermons by him; and reviews and clippings about his works. Much of the collection is devoted to correspondence between leading theologians and Kierkegaard scholars, such as Canon Johnson, Niels Thulstrup, Masuri Otani, and Frederik Riedel, concerning translations of and articles about Kierkegaard's works. The collection also reflects Lowrie's contributions to Kierkegaardian scholarship by making accessible through his translations the Danish philosopher's works. There is additional correspondence by family members to Lowrie, particularly letters from his mother, as well as letters exchanged between family members and correspondence between Lowrie and various publishers. In addition, there are scrapbooks of printed material about Kierkegaard, material (1907-1930) relating to Lowrie's principal parish, St. Paul's in Rome, and offprints of Lowrie's published works, as well as a thesis by Donald Fox, The Long Life of Walter Lowrie.
Arrangement
The collection has been arranged in the following series:
I. Autobiographical volumes II. Works A. Books 1) The Enchanted Island 2) The Resurrection of Mrs. Ponsonby 3) The Soul of Plants a) Articles b) Notes 4) A Short Life of Kierkegaard B. Articles and reviews C. Sermons and addresses D. Scrapbooks III. Correspondence A. Family B. General IV. Photographs V. Documents VI. Printed matter VII. Papers by Howard Johnson VIII. Thesis by Donald FoxAdded Entries
The following added entries have been assigned to this collection to highlight significant sources (other than the main entry), subjects, and forms of the collection's materials. Where possible Library of Congress Subject Headings have been used, and the forms of names reflect international cataloging standards. As a result, all of these entries may be searched in the Deprartment's database (MASC), in the Library's online catalog, and the public card catalog to find other related material.
Person/Corporate Body Added Entries:
Johnson, Howard Albert, 1915-1974
Subject Headings (in uppercase) / Form Headings (in upper and lowercase):
AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS--UNITED STATES--20TH CENTURY
Clergy--United States--20th century--Correspondence
Clergy--United States--20th century--Works
CHRISTIANITY AND EXISTENTIALISM
Enchanted island / Walter Lowrie
Episcopal Church--Clergy--20th century--Correspondence
Episcopal Church--Clergy--20th century--Works
EXISTENTIALISM
Fathers and sons--New Jersey--20th century--Correspondence
Johnson, Howard Albert, 1915-1974--Photographs
KIERKEGAARD, SOREN, 1813-1855
Long life of Walter Lowrie / Donald Fox
Lowrie, Walter, 1868-1959--Photographs
Mothers and sons--United States--19th century--Correspondence
Mothers and sons--United States--20th century--Correspondence
Philosophers--Denmark--20th century--Biographies
Philosophy, Danish--20th century--Translations into
English
Princeton University--Alumni (Class of 1890)--Correspondence
Princeton University--Alumni (Class of 1890)--Works
Sermons, American--20th century
Short life of Kierkegaard / Walter Lowrie
Soul of plants / Walter Lowrie
Related Publications:
The Complete Bibliography of Walter Lowrie Illustrated with Selections from His Wit and Wisdom, edited by Donald Hardie Fox, Fox Head Press, 1979.
The Long Life of Walter Lowrie by Donald Fox (thesis for Princeton
Theological Seminary, May 1985)
19 1 Armour (Allison, Charles, Myra, Norman): 1948-1978 2 Armour, Harriet F.: 1917-1920 3 Derr, Andrew: 1906-1957 4 Dickson (Alexander, Fred, Kate): 1893-1899 5 Dickson, Sarah M.: 1887-1894 6 Family letters (by Lowrie): includes notes, copies, a family history, and a volume of letters from Lowrie to his mother and others during his trip abroad with his father in 1886 (copied by his sister Rachel) 7 Lowrie (Grandmother): 1890-1896 8 Lowrie, Harriet: 1889-1957 9 Lowrie, Lizzie: 1874-1893 10 Lowrie, Lizzie: 1894 20 1 Lowrie, Lizzie: 1895-1897 2 Lowrie, Lizzie: 1899 3 Lowrie, Lizzie: 1900 4 Lowrie, Lizzie: 1901-1906 21 1 Lowrie, Lizzie: 1907 2 Lowrie, Marjorie: 1888-1959 3 Lowrie, Rachel: 1872-1953 4 Lowrie, Rachel Thompson: 1857 5 Lowrie, Samuel Thompson: 1868-1893 6 Lowrie, Samuel Thompson: 1894-1911 22 1 Lowrie, Samuel Thompson: 1912-1924 2 Lowrie, Sarah: 1889-1914 3 Lowrie, Sarah: 1915-1957 4 Lowrie, Sarah: undated 5 Miscellaneous family
23 1 A-Al 2 American-Scandinavian Foundation: 1933-1977 3 American Waldensian Aid Society: 1911-1924 4 An-Bib 5 Billington, Phyllis: 1956-1960 6 Bo-Brown, G. 7 Brown, John C.: 1942-1959 8 Brown, P. - Bry 9 Buonaiuti, Ernesto: 1929-1946 10 Buonocore, Onofrio: 1947-1948 11 Bus-Cha 12 Chen, Dehy: 1933-1940 13 Chi-Col 14 Conant, William: 1886-1947 15 Cond-Cra 16 Crocker, Jack: 1935-1978 24 1 Crox-Do 2 Dru, Alexander: 1934-1935 3 Dru, Alexander: 1936-1937 4 Dru, Alexander: 1938-1977 5 Du Bois 6 Duggins, Hillis: 1947-1954 7 Dugu-E 8 Fabro, P. Cornelio: 1946-1959 9 Fal 10 Farr, James M.: 1890-1943 11 Fav-G 12 H 13 Hallan, Giorgina L.: 1940-1942 14 Halv 15 Hamilton, Charles Granville: 1935-1978 16 Han-Hard 25 1 Harper and Row: 1958-1964 2 Hart-Hill 3 "Hill's Rock": Dr. Lowrie's house in Keene Valley, New York 4 Hin-Hod 5 Holden, Arthur C.: 1977-1978 6 Holm-Jan 7 Jensen, John M.: 1935-1941 8 Jenson, R. 9 Johnson, Howard A.: 1943-1946 10 Johnson, Howard A.: 1947-1949 11 Johnson, Howard A.: 1950-1951 26 1 Johnson, Howard A.: 1952-1953 2 Johnson, Howard A.: 1954-1955 3 Johnson, Howard A.: 1956-1957 27 1 Johnson, Howard A.: 1958 2 Johnson, Howard A.: 1959-1960 3 Johnson, Howard A.: 1961-1963 28 1 Johnson, Howard A.: 1964-1969 2 Johnson, Howard A.: 1970-1978 3 K-Kel 4 Kerr, Hugh T.: 1950-1959 5 Ket-Les 6 Letters written: a list 7 Li-Lom 8 Longmans, Green and Company, Inc.: 1903-1976 9 Lowith, Karl: 1941-1947 10 Lowrie, Walter: letters of sympathy upon his death, 1959 11 Lu-MacF 12 MacKay, John A.: 1942-1978 13 Mackay, Smith A. 29 1 Macke-Mar 2 Mastrogiovanni, Salvatore: 1921-1953 3 Mat-Mil 4 Ministers of Christ by Walter Lowrie: 1962-1964 5 Mir-N 6 O'Flaherty, James C.: 1951-1978 7 Ok-Os 8 Otani, Masaru: 1949-1977 9 Ott-Ou 10 Oxford University Press: 1935-1937 11 Oxford University Press: 1938-1939 30 1 Oxford University Press: 1940 2 Oxford University Press: 1941-1977 3 P-Pal 4 Pantheon Books, Inc.: 1946-1963 5 Par-Parmeg 6 Parmentier, Bud: 1950-1955 7 Parq-Phe 8 Philosphical Library: 1952-1962 9 Pig-Pik 10 Pittenger, Norman: 1952-1978 11 Pitti-Po 12 Princeton University Press: 1940-1942 13 Princeton University Press: 1943-1946 14 Princeton University Press: 1947-1977 31 1 Princeton University Press: Sales and Royalty Statements 2 Prip-Moller, J.: 1934-1958 3 Prit-Ric 4 Riedel, Frederick: 1948-1949 5 Riviere, William T.: 1935-1945 6 Rivo-Rod 7 Rosenstock-Huessy, Dr. Eugen: 1945-1951 8 S-Schu 9 Schweitzer, Dr. Albert: 1915-1977 10 Se-Stan 11 Stauffacher, Jack Werner: 1950-1978 12 Ste-Su 32 1 Swenson, David F.: 1933-1937 2 Swenson, David F.: 1938-1940 3 Swenson, David F. and Geismar, E.: 1934-1939 4 Swenson, Lillian M.: 1941-1943 33 1 T-Thomp 2 Thomsen, Eric H.: 1933-1936 3 Thomsen, R.-Thomt 4 Thulstrup, Niels: 1948-1959 5 Ti-Und 6 Unidentified 7 Unio-Vir 8 Vittorini, Mimmo: 1916-1947 9 Vo-Wa 10 Weber, William M.: 1941-1978 11 Wedel, Theodore O.: 1943-1959 12 Wh-Woo 34 1 Worcester, Elwood: 1904-1935 2 Worcester, Elwood: 1937-1978 3 Wy-ZTOP
(10/2/95)