Old Catholic Books on Family Life?

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Asking for a friend: Does anyone know of any books on Catholic Family Living, Homemaking, Celebrating, etc. from the “old” days (1930’s-1950’s)? Or any suggestions on where to look for such books?

Moderators, if this is the wrong subforum, please relocate. 🙂
 
ahs said:
Asking for a friend: Does anyone know of any books on Catholic Family Living, Homemaking, Celebrating, etc. from the “old” days (1930’s-1950’s)? Or any suggestions on where to look for such books?

Moderators, if this is the wrong subforum, please relocate. 🙂
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Around the Year with the Trapp Family. It’s been out of print for eons and finding a used copy can be expensive, but if your friend doesn’t mind the small font, EWTN has the book online. ewtn.com/library/family/trapp.txt

Books by Francis X. Weiser, SJ ( a Trapp family friend) will have lots of suggestions on the liturgical year from a “family-friendly” point of view. Those are a little easier and a lot more affordable to find used than my first suggestion.

Sophia Institute Press reprints old favorites from Mary Reed Newland, such as “The Year and Our Children” (originally published in the 1950’s)
sophiainstitute.com/products/item/year-and-our-children-the
 
ahs said:
Asking for a friend: Does anyone know of any books on Catholic Family Living, Homemaking, Celebrating, etc. from the “old” days (1930’s-1950’s)? Or any suggestions on where to look for such books?

Moderators, if this is the wrong subforum, please relocate. 🙂
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Try Phyliss McGinley’s Sixpence in Her Shoe (1964), which is a celebration of homemaking. (She was also the poet who wrote the very fun book Saint-Watching.)

See also Aloise Buckley Heath’s “Will Mrs. Major Go to Hell?” which is a posthumous collection of essays by William F. Buckley’s sister, a mother of 10.

Some of this stuff is a little newer than your friend was asking for, but I think it fits in other respects.
 
I think something from the 1880’s might be more edifying. The era you’re asking for is still fairly modern.
 
1neophyte said:
I think something from the 1880’s might be more edifying. The era you’re asking for is still fairly modern.
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Actually the era for several decades up to 1960 was pretty consistent in Catholic writing on the family, from what I have seen. In a couple years everything changed overnight. It wasn’t very gradual.

Writers since then, including Phyllis McGinley, have been “modern”, unless they are among the few who write for newly created, tiny publishers who have chosen to reflect a classic view.

St. Augustine Academy Press has been reprinting lots of family oriented Catholic books from the early 1900s. Check them out online. Also, check out the Catholic home schoolers websites, which often use books originally printed before 1960.
 
1neophyte said:
I think something from the 1880’s might be more edifying. The era you’re asking for is still fairly modern.
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Got any 1880s titles to suggest?

(I bet that the US Catholic population was so small, poor and non-English speaking at the time that there wasn’t really much to speak of. Hence the 1930s-early 1960s really are a better bet.)
 
Xantippe said:
Got any 1880s titles to suggest?

(I bet that the US Catholic population was so small, poor and non-English speaking at the time that there wasn’t really much to speak of. Hence the 1930s-early 1960s really are a better bet.)
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😃 I was thinking the same thing. I’ve only been able to find a small handful of pre-1900’s writings, and none of them were home-geared; rather they were instructions on rites, liturgical works, or theological in nature.

Thank you everyone for the great suggestions! I will pass these along.
 
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