Explore "Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century" by John Loughery on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
AS NAZI ARMIES FANNED OUT across Europe, emigration for those who could find their way across the Atlantic increased rapidly throughout 1940 and into the first weeks of 1941. Dorothy made the acquaintance of some notable Catholic refugees soon after they landed in New York. One was the Nobel Laureate Sigrid Undset. A longtime critic of National Socialism, she had lost a son in action and fled Norway, knowing she would be a particular target for the Gestapo. Mutual friends arranged a dinner in Brooklyn one night with John LaFarge, which gave Dorothy an opportunity to offer her condolences and express her enthusiasm for Kristin Lavransdatter. Undset impressed her as a woman "of great health and vigor," as knowledgeable about American as Scandinavian literature. She, in turn, told Dorothy how much she admired From Union Square to Rome, a book she had even lectured about in her homeland. She returned to Europe as soon after the liberation of her country as possible.
Others had no intention of returning to Europe. Hélène Iswolsky, just escaped from Vichy France, was introduced to Dorothy by a cosmopolitan friend of the Catholic Worker, Julie Kernan, who held a job in publishing, served as Raïssa Maritain's English translator, and knew a good many writers. The warm feeling between the two women was mutual and immediate and would last a lifetime.