Director and Curator of Special Collections and Archives Christian Goodwillie recently received the Communal Society Association’s (CSA) Timothy Miller Outstanding Publication Award for his book Richard McNemar: Frontier Heretic and Shaker Apostle (Indiana University Press, 2023). The award, given for “an outstanding contribution to the understanding of communal societies,” was presented at the CSA annual conference held in Ephrata, Pa.
According to the publisher’s description of the book, “Richard McNemar: Frontier Heretic and Shaker Apostle is the first biography of a key and complex American religious figure of the 19th century, considered by many to be the ‘father of Shaker literature.’”
McNemar began as a Presbyterian minister in the Midwest, taking his preaching and the practice of his congregation in an evangelical ‘free will’ direction during the Kentucky Revival. After Shaker missionaries arrived, he converted, and “played a prominent role in expanding and raising public awareness of their religion, founding Shaker communities in the Midwest and becoming the first Shaker published author and the most prolific composer of Shaker hymns.”
The IUP says “… Richard McNemar’s life poses a challenge for any biographer. Christian Goodwillie’s mastery of the archival records surrounding McNemar and the Shakers allows him to tell McNemar’s story in a way that fully captures the complexity of the man and the scope of his enduring legacy in American religious history.”
