We are a very literate family! For decades now, we've had a sheaf of the articles written by John C. Cahalan, Jr. and published in The Commonweal, a lay Catholic journal covering cultural issues, circulating among us. At least three sets of these works have come down to me, so I assume they've been widely distributed among the family.
Over the past week, I scanned these copies from the best sources I have on hand, and have now published them on the web. They're at https://www.cahalan.org/articles-of-john-c-cahalan-jr.
In addition, the correspondence John Jr. received from several editors at The Commonweal, and which he saved, and which was found in his papers after my grandfather's death, is included. It gives a picture of how the editors communicated with their authors at the time. I've put up the letters and articles by date, so that we have the sequence of the ongoing communication--and have even included scans of the envelopes, just for historical purposes.
My grandfather, Joseph Cahalan, also mentioned that his father, John Jr., had published in America, the Jesuit magazine. I've contacted them, and will look for these articles, if they exist, as well. This will be old-fashioned, "Index of Periodical Articles,"-type research: the sort of thing we old folks used to have to do to write a research paper. Wish me luck!
Among John Jr's papers, however, were a few other related works of note, which I've also published on the page (link above): a draft article like the published ones which--to the best of my knowledge--was never finished or published, titled A Cowardly Act; a work in dramatic dialogue--was he writing skit or a play?--titled The Tout which seems to date from his college days at St. Mary's in St. Louis, MO; and several pages of an untitled work of fiction. These last two are in his handwriting, which is relatively easy to read--and can be downloaded by dragging the files to one's desktop if they need to be enlarged. This is new information.
As always, the site is something of a mess as it's a work in progress, but new bits of family history are on their way. Coming soon will be pages devoted to correspondence--there are many letters and telegrams in the collection, which I scanned last summer and fall.
Thanks as always for your attention, and please do forward this email to others in the family who'd likely be interested. Encourage them to sign up on the cahalan.org site. Some of us are on Facebook, but some aren't, so I'll be posting this information there, too.
Greg
