PREFACE

What follows is a brief introduction to Mr. Flynn, his authorship of these writings, and how this book came about. From my research on his life, which I made available at //prabook.com/web/clarence.flynn/1084802, Clarence Edwin Flynn (1886–1970) was an American Methodist Episcopal clergyman, writer, hymnist and lecturer. He’s described as a “writer of stories, articles and verse appearing in periodicals and anthologies” and is “represented in anthologies of verse. General character writing, religious, educational.” [1] [2] [3] His writings (sans poems) appeared in more than 50 different domestic and international publications.

Were all of these writings authored by Clarence Edwin Flynn? I cannot say that is true with certainty, but I’ll offer the following support. Firstly, there’s moderate support in the fact that the middle initial “E” is used in all but two bylines; two bylines have no middle name or initial. Secondly, almost a third of the bylines offer strong support through the attributes mainly of title (e.g. Reverend) and locations that correspond with his biography. Thirdly, moderate to strong support can be found in the writings’ content, which is the basis for including more than half of the writings. Religious topics certainly offer strong support. As for the wide variety of other topics covered, the reader will find multiple cases where Reverend Flynn encourages preachers to broaden their knowledge and experiences in order to better serve their congregations. And if you find the content strong in the art of persuasion, Flynn was a member of the college oratory team. In conclusion, this brief analysis is limited by the absence of Clarence Edwin Flynn’s personal papers (their status is unknown to me).

How did this book come about? In short, the writings were collected during the primary process of collecting poetry. The longer explanation is in the preface to the book cited in the third footnote. As with the book of poetry, this is the inaugural collection of writings and is limited to those published in 1929 or earlier in accordance with a copyright rule governing works first published before 95 years ago.

[1] Who’s Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women. Vol. 24, 1946–1947, Two Years. Chicago: The A. N. Marquis Co., 1946. p. 780 Back to text

[2] Lawrence, Alberta, ed. Who’s Who Among North American Authors. Vol. 5, 1931–1932. Los Angeles: Golden Syndicate Publishing Co., 1931. p. 1089 Back to text