The Great Day of HIS NAME is upon us!

Lady Lee

I am so glad this project is finally finished and soon to be released

Hip Hip Hooray

Lady Lee

I had to come back and say one more thing.

I love the way the presidents are ordered from Russel on down It says to me

Its all downhill from here!

Oh, yes!! And great to see him hold the copyright. :) I just wonder if republishing the book without the pseudonym (and with a new copyright date) might obscure the connection between the book and the widely-cited and widely-commended book by "Timothy White"? The blurb should at least mention the other name for those who might not realize that this is the "Timothy White" book.

Do you know if the typeface has been reset, such that page number citations might vary between the original and the new version, or if it is an exact facsimile of the original? Hopefully it is the latter....

Nathan Natas

My understanding is that the book is not soon to be released, but is fully released right now.

It will take a few weeks for AMAZON and other online sellers to update their catalogs, but the book can be ordered now from Lulu.

Yes, as Leo mentioned "Timothy White" is in fact Tony Wills. It would be a good point to make in the blurb, I agree. Tony used a pseudonym in the first edition to protect the identity of a pioneer sister who did all the typing for him. As he approaches 70 years of age, Tony isn't worried about who knows who is is.

The book is not a replica of the first edition but is completely re-typeset, the reason being to hold costs down: 300 pages in this edition vs. about 420 in the first edition. As an aid to researchers, this book includes an index, too!

truthsetsonefree

I had never heard of htis book or individual by either name. Can anyone give some of the things that make this book stand out?

tsof

Nathan Natas

Hi tsof,

This is a book that is well-known among researchers and writers on the subject of JW history, but it is no surprise that few of the wider JW and XJW community have ever heard of it. It was privately published in 1967 -- the same time the WTB&TS began ramping up expectations about ~~Armageddon~~ 1975. Because it was privately published (by Vantage), the author was in the classic "I have a garage full of boxes of books that I need to sell" situation. He was able, fortunately, to get the books into the hands of a number of libraries but then it seemed that interest just dried up. This was long before the advent of the invisible World Wide Web, and Tony just couldn't find his audience. Discouraged over his apparent failure, Tony took his remaining inventory -- more than half of the total number printed -- to the public dump and set them on fire.

Through the years, some have obtained photocopies of the books in libraries. Tony had some contact with various XJWs a few decades ago: Jim Penton and Richard Rawe are two, but it seems they lost contact as the years marched by. Some felt that maybe Tony had returned to the land of his birth outside the US, others speculated that he might even be dead. almost a year ago contact with Tony was re-established, and it was suggested to him that the time may be right for a second edition of A People For His Name. Tony agreed to give it a go.

You can preview the book at the LULU - there's a link right up there to the left of the title - and that will give you the table of contents. If you have a copy of Penton's Apocalypse Delayed, you can see what he says in his review of the book on page 406:

"White's was long by far the most complete history of Jehovah's Witnesses extant, and in many ways it was the best. An examination of A People For His Name shows that its author has done an amazing amount of research and understands both the history and the doctrines of the Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses in a way that very few do. Although many witnesses may disagree with some of his statements, what he says cannot be dismissed out of hand. At the same time, professional critics of Jehovah's Witnesses should note how he disproves many traditional anti-witness arguments based on little more than gossip and slander."

truthsetsonefree

This sounds like my kind of book. I like substantive.

tsof

Leolaia

It is a genuine classic. I still refer to it a lot (and yes, I photocopied it back in the late '80s).

My concern about resetting the type is that there are many references in the scholarly literature to, say, White (1969:146) and an owner of the new edition would not have a clue of what is being cited. But I am glad that it is correctly listed as "second edition". Did the author take the opportunity to revise or add to his manuscript? I recall seeing a few typos in the original book.

Rooster

I can't afford the price of the book. Natas you buy it and post the good stuff in here.

The Great Day of HIS NAME is upon us!

Share this