Publisher's Synopsis
This series of books starts with a bio of, "The Father of Modern Humanism, John Hassler Dietrich," a few of his writings. The other Volumes are his writings. He wrote 2000 speeches but the church only published a few. We found about 450. All of them in unreadable formats. I have been 3 years working on the first 150 and now the last 200. I am the first in over 8o years to read these and I know why thousands came to hear Dietrich. I came to similar values and beliefs before I discovered Dietrich. His thoughts are real and alive as when he wrote them. My friend Ben has read them and said, "No matter where I put my finger it opens to a gem. Dietrich and I both wrote speeches rather than books so they read like speeches rather than books and without the proper punctuation for books. I am no English major but I wanted to publish for preservation. Dr. David Schafer, retired Yale professor, scientist, co-founder and past president of the Humanist Assoc. of Ct, said, "For several years, among the talks most consistently popular with our members have been those in Doug Peary's long-running series, "Humanist Heroes." We've talked to a number of people about the reason for this. One reason seems to be the emotional intensity Doug brings to his research on each of his subjects, an intensity that continues to reward him, and us, deeply with each of his subjects with each new biography he touches. These are not just interesting stories from and about the lives of Humanists; they are intimate glimpses of more meaningful insights into living, working, loving, and dying, profoundly inspirational for Doug and his audiences." William R. Murry, past president of Meadville Lombard Theological School and Minister Emeritus of the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, MD.? Murry is the author of "A Faith for All Seasons: Liberal Religion and the Crises of Life;" "Reason and Reverence: Religious Humanism for the 21'st Century," and "Becoming More Fully Human: Religious Humanism As A Way of Life. Murry said, "Mr. Peary, Thank you for your excellent book, Humanist Heroes. It is an important contribution to Humanism." -- Rev. Ann Fuller, in September 2011, in her church newsletter, recommended Humanist Heroes to her congregation. I thanked her. She responded "My pleasure. I also included it in the required reading for my class at the Humanist Institute for our opening session on Essential Humanism this past December. They really enjoyed the personal stories and thought it was a nice break from the drier philosophical works they had to read. Gave humanism the human touch. Another UU minister, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, "Douglas Peary in his book Humanist Heroes has written brief biographies of the lives of men (and Women), ranging from Voltaire and Thomas Paine in the eighteenth century to Margaret Knight, Steve Allen and Carl Sagan in the twentieth. His subjects include writers and poets, scientists and philosophers, ministers, Psychiatrists, and lawyers, even a television personality! A wonderful aspect of the book is that Peary includes extended pieces of each person's own writings so the reader can get a better feel for each man. There isn't a way to summarize a book as rich in research and story and detail as Peary's. What I can do is suggest in a couple of ways how Peary's stories help bring religious humanism to life. There are many in our culture who assume that there can be no ethics without belief in a God- that there is no foundation for acting morally without a supreme being, and/or no incentive to be moral without the promise of divine reward or punishment." In 2015, Editor Rev. Douglas Kenneth Peary, republished all of his Humanist Heroes presentations in a three volume set entitled, "Humanist Heroes Through the Centuries, 1600's to the Present, from Spinoza to Hawking, including Ingersoll and Dietrich." Humanist Heroes has been quoted on the Internet from countries and continents around th
