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Joseph Pearce

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Joseph Pearce
For other people named Joseph Pearce, see Joseph Pearce (disambiguation).

Joseph Pearce (born 1961) is an English-born writer, as of 2004 Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies. He became a Roman Catholic convert in 1989, and writes from a Catholic perspective. He is also a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.

Life

He was born in East London, and brought up in Dagenham, England. At the age of 15 he joined the National Front (NF), a far-right political party opposed to a multi-racial and multi-cultural England. He was closely involved in NF organisational activities, and first came to prominence in 1977 when at the age of 16 he set up Bulldog, the paper of the Young National Front (of which he was leader). Bulldog became associated with some of the most virulent of NF propaganda and Pearce was twice convicted under the Race Relations Act, serving time in prison in 1982 and 1985-6 due to its contents.[1] He was also present to see the NF's involvement in anti-Catholic violence in Derry.

In 1980 Pearce became editor of Nationalism Today, in which he argued vehemently in favour of racial preservation, producing a pamphlet entitled Fight for Freedom! on this theme in 1982. He was a frequent visitor to Northern Ireland and he maintained regular contact with the Ulster Defence Association[2] He attributes, in part, his subsequent religious conversion, from a culturally-Protestant agnosticism, to reading G. K. Chesterton, of whom he wrote a biography. He now repudiates his earlier views, saying that his racism stemmed from hatred, and that his conversion to Christian belief completely changed his outlook.[3]

As a Catholic author, he has focused mainly in the works of Catholic English writers, such as Chesterton. His book Literary Converts, published in 1999, captures this interest and showcases the process of conversion of many writers who became convinced of the truth of Catholicism.

He has also promoted social doctrine of the Church, and specifically Distributism as a Catholic economic system. His main contribution to this area has been his book Small is Still Beautiful, which takes on the theme proposed earlier by E. F. Schumacher in his book Small is Beautiful.

Works

  • "Skrewdriver – First Ten Years"
  • Wisdom and Innocence - A Life of G. K. Chesterton. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996. ISBN 0-340-67132-7
  • Tolkien: Man and Myth. London: HarperCollins, 1998. ISBN 0002740184. 1999, ISBN 0002740664
  • The Three Ys Men. London: Saint Austin Press, 1998. ISBN 1901157024
  • Tolkien: A Celebration. Collected Writings on a Literary Legacy, edited by Joseph Pearce. London: Fount, 1999. ISBN 0006281206
  • Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief. London: HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0006281117
  • Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile. London: HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0002740400
  • Flowers of Heaven: 1000 years of Christian Verse, compiled by Joseph Pearce. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. ISBN 0340722207.
  • Revised ed., San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005. ISBN 9781586170783
  • Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc. London: HarperCollins, 2002. ISBN 0002740966
  • Small is still Beautiful. London: HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 0002740907. Published in the USA as "Small is Still Beautiful: Economics as if Families Mattered." Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2006. ISBN 9781933859057
  • C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003. ISBN 0898709792
  • Roy Campbell, Selected Poems, edited and introduced by Joseph Pearce. Johannesburg: Ad Donker, 2001. ISBN 0868522236
  • Bloomsbury and Beyond: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell. London: HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 0002740923. Published in the USA as Unafraid of Virginia Woolf: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell. ISI Books, 2004. ISBN 978-1932236361
  • The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. London: HarperCollins, 2000. ISBN 0002740427. 2001, ISBN 0002740516
  • Literary Giants, Literary Catholics. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1586170776
  • The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, April, 2008. ISBN 1586172247 and ISBN 978-1586172244
  • Pearce, Joseph; Murray, Jef (April, 2008). Divining Divinity. Kaufmann Publishing. p. 43. ISBN 978-0976858010. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Television

Joseph Pearce is the host of the EWTN television series The Quest for Shakespeare based on his book The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome. The show concentrates on the evidence that Shakespeare was a Catholic and consists of thirteen episodes.[4]

References

  1. ^ Seachlight, December 1984
  2. ^ Searchlight magazine, February 1986
  3. ^ J. Pearce, Race with the Devil
  4. ^ The Quest for Shakespeare EWTN website, Accessed May 5, 2009
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