Synopsis

A friend by convincement considers the basic doctrines of Quakerism. Selections from the author’s classic book on the subject, first published in 1890.

About the Author(s)

Caroline E. Stephen (1834-1909) converted to Quakerism because she found that it gave her the opportunity to worship God without the fear of insincerity and inadequacy that she found in other religions. Quakerism turned her life around, enabling her to live fully in spite of a continuing illness that plagued her later years. During that time, she lived in a small cottage called “the Porch” in Cambridge, England. This house, small though it was, soon became a center for Friends attending the University to come and talk about their faith and other issues. Caroline Stephen came from one of England’s first families and wrote extensively about Quakerism. Quaker Strongholds, her most famous book, is still regarded as a classic work on Quakerism. In addition to her service to Young Friends, she extended her hospitality to her young niece, Virginia Woolf. Recuperating in the Stephen household, Virginia Woolf found some of the spirit that later contributed to her writing. Woolf remembered her aunt’s hospitality so fondly that she placed it at the center of an obituary for Stephen in 1909, and Woolf scholars still credit Stephen with making her writing possible.

Pendle Hill Pamphlet #59