Family Voices: Writings by Descendants of Luise Martha Krause and George Link

By George Link and Martha Link

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465322357

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Copyright © 2011 by George L. Spaeth.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 09/29/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

580301

Family Voices

Writings by

Merrie Maverick Lezar

Henry Charles Link

James Wilson Link

Robert Frederick Link

Suzanne Spaeth Marinell

William Henry Marinell

Link Moser

Tyler Moser

Tavi Parusel

Pitt Petri Jr.

Christopher Philip Spaeth

Edmund Benjamin Spaeth Jr.

Edmund Benjamin Spaeth III

Eric Edmund Spaeth

George Link Spaeth

George Link Spaeth Jr.

Hannah Pfeiffer Spaeth

Karl Henry Spaeth

Lena Marie Link Spaeth

Merrie Marcia Spaeth

Collected by

George L. Spaeth

Shown in the photograph on the title page is the Link family around 1910. Seated beside their home on 226 Southampton Street are Martha and George Link. Standing are Henry Charles, Esther Luise, Christian Fredereich (a nephew), Ruth Amelie, Frederick George and Lena Marie. In front of her parents is Elisabeth Margareta.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks go to Esther Link, a constant vocal cheerleader who supported every person in the Link family; to Eric Spaeth, who prepared the genealogy and provided wise advice; and to Debbie Malony, my assistant for many years, who helped me prepare this collection.

Contents

Introduction

Genealogy

SECOND GENERATION

Chapter 1 Henry Charles Link

Will-Power from The Rediscovery of Man, 1938

Spiritual Security vs. Social Security from The Way to Security, 1951

Chapter 2 Lena Marie Link Spaeth

Stories for Children: You Know What?

A Day at the Fair

Fun with Dogs

The Zoo

The Blue Bear

The Easter Bunny on a Snowy Morning

Do You Know a Collie?

A Surprise at the Philadelphia Zoo

Another Rainy Day at the Zoo

A Kitten Comes to Live with Us

Easter Sunday in the New House

Little Creatures on a Windowsill

Far Country

Not Only To Look, But To See

About the Field Mouse Who Came in out of the Cold

Beautiful Rocky Mountains

THIRD GENERATION

Chapter 3 James Wilson Link

Zucchini et Oyster Sauce, Robért

Chapter 4 Robert Frederick Link

A Summer Fantasy

Chapter 5 Edmund Benjamin Spaeth Jr.

a.  Morning Coffee

Let Me Hold You Close

My Grandfather’s Penknife

In Memory of My Parents

Reconciliation

The Trout Stream

Mother’s Rose

Once Around

To Nancy

Suzy

Why Must My Daughter Weep?

To Jim

On the Occasion of Will and Amanda’s Wedding

Ted’s Beach

To My Brother Phil

Flowers for the Altar

b.  Poems from Squirrel Island (Summer 2005)

The First Morning

On Returning to the Island

A Plea (To Whom?)

The Forget-me-nots

On a Warm Spring Day

One Night before Dawn

A Summer Prayer

Yearning

Maine House and Garden Tour

Acceptance

Up Early

The Hummingbird

The Little Skit

The Big Barberry Bush

A Dream

The Night Train

Taking stock

c.  Poems from Squirrel Island (Summer 2006)

Tara the Golden Girl

A Birthday Wish

Kitchen Still Life

The Foxgloves Courtesy

The Orange Poppies

The Goldfinch

A House in Maine

Let Go, I Say, Let Go

Pruning the Rose

If I Were Zeus

Late Summer’s Silent Wake

An Old Man’s Wish on Awakening from His Nap

May I Suggest a Garden?

The Birdbath

Late September

Putting the Garden Away

Love and Longing

Leaving the Island

d.  Other Poems from Squirrel Island

Late Winter

Arrival

An Old Man Gardening

The Garden

The Garden of Eden

The Old Bench

A Patched Fool

Maine Morning

e.  Year of Walks with Cody, a Golden Retriever

1.   Snow

2.   The Winter Pine

3.   Early Morning Rain

4.   Once in April

5.   May’s Parade

6.   By the Sea

7.   Getting the Mail

8.   Dawn

9.   The Return

10.   The End of the Season

11.   The Toast

12.   December

f.  Poems from Squirrel Island, 2008

Returning to the Island Late

How Give Thanks?

Windy Day

On Finding Driftwood

The Myrtle Warbler

October Roses

g.  Poems with Various Themes

Lullaby

Walking Tara

A Wish

Love’s Command

Time’s Tide

Winter Warm Spell

November

Sometimes at Night

Reflections after a Stroke

Pursuit

Snowdrops

Old Judge’s Morning Walk

The Party

Winter Walk

Yellow Tulips

Opus 39, No. 9

To Spring

Once When Walking

On Watching the Sky

Two Worlds

The Snowstorm

Three O’clock in the Morning

Where Are We Going?

Outer Heron Island

At the Phillips with Honoré Daumier

Homage to Mozart

Poetry and the Law (An old judge’s meditation on a poem by Whitman)

A Meditation on King Lear

A Meditation on Robert Burns’s To a Mouse

Reflections on Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey

Can Our Imaginings . . . ?

The Power of Poetry

The Old Poet’s Dream

The Channel Buoy

Cartwheels

Nancy’s Exhibit

Credo

Proof

Why Do I Try?

Conversations between Life and an Old Man

Old Age’s Recompense

Lessons from Old Age

My Cane’s Instruction

Time Is like a Mountain Stream

Sunset

Immortality

Thoughts from Home

Does Delight Deceive or Make Us Wise?

The Old Lawyer’s Dream

Meantime

Just a Glimpse

After Recovery

A Dinner Conversation

Christmas Shopping

New Year’s Eve

A Love Song

Prose by Edmund Benjamin Spaeth Jr.

In Celebration of Squirrel Island

A Judge’s Three Worlds: Proof, Philosophy, and the Prison

Reflections on the Role of the Bar Association

Reaching for a Clearer Vision of Justice

Portrait Ceremony

Chapter 6 Karl Henry Spaeth

Algonquin Diary (August 15–August 26)

Chapter 7 George Link Spaeth

Poems

A Christmas Song for My Parents

Morning Glories

Seasons

The Girl and the Dragon

Fall Evening

Sea Magic

Late Walk in Early December Snow

Summer Is Here (A Prayer for Two Young Girls)

The Water Tower

The Night Reflects the Source of Silver

Deepening Evening

A Mountain

Mountain Grace

No Cycles for Single Things

The Pear

Two Boys

Old Friends Meet in Connemara

Lilac Longing

Your Eyes Are Beautiful

Anne Khu Chan

Toast to Roger Hitchings

Translations

Morgen by George Mackay

Practice on the Piano by Rainer Maria Rilke

The Elocution Contest by Rainer Maria Rilke

Love is Thriving Every Place by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Bist du bei mir by Johann Sebastian Bach

Prose

Purple Asters

The Korean Vase

A Lesson from a Gas Station

Anything Feeds the Birds

The White Chair in the Field

Because a Fire was in My Head

The Five Paths to Good Health

Two Prayers

Selected Editorials

The Pansy-picking Phenomenon

Boatbuilders, Surgeons, and Quality

Informed Choice, Not Informed Consent

The Escalator Phenomenon and Health Care

Caring for Animals, Caring for Ourselves

Needed: Medical Heroes

Heroes Revisited

Every Man’s Death Diminishes Me

Reunions Are Reunions

Chapter 8 Pitt Petri, Jr

Home Sweet Home

Chapter 9 Tyler Moser

Seasons

Summer

Summer 2

Winter

FOURTH GENERATION

Chapter 10 Suzanne Spaeth Marinell

The Bell

Haikus Inspired by My Trips This Winter to the Schuylkill River (2000)

Haikus of Spring (2002)

Schuylkill River Haikus

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Chapter 11 Edmund Benjamin Spaeth III

Orchid Therapy

Chapter 12 Merrie Marcia Spaeth

Ode

Journal

Portrait of Thanksgiving

Christmas Tree

Obituary

The Star-crossed Child

The Lack Brought Home

To Several

Words Kept

A Careful Zone

Embers

The Parallel Lovers

San Diego Freeway

Maine Fog

Deep-sea Fishing

The Fisherman

Imitation

Headache

Modern America

Miss America (An oratorical poem to be read aloud)

Villanelle of Mind

Expression

The Expression of Poetry

The World Is Filled with Poems

Anniversary

The White Shades

Chapter 13 Christopher Philip Spaeth

Cycling

Simple Things

Fly-fishing

Chapter 14 George Link Spaeth Jr.

Poems from 1984

The Stars Aren’t out of Reach

In Praise of Ants

The Moon

Your Hair Swirls around You

You’re Mine

Blown Snow Rests on the Sides of Trees

Cool Soft Night

Poems to My Parents

Christmas Eve 1987

Ann, Maman, Mummy

Song Lyrics

Lullaby

36B, Bayswater Five O’clock

Chopping Wood and Falling Snow

Love Song

Chapter 15 (written 1995–1997)

Poems

Angels Love You

Nice World

Tous Les Moineaux Sont Italiens

Selections from the collection Diary of a Commuter (written 1995–1997)

Chapter 16 Link Lowell Moser

I Long for the Day

The World Is a Safe Place to Live

Nature

FIFTH GENERATION

Chapter 17 William Henry Marinell

Father and Son (Jim to Will)

Son to Father (Will to Jim)

Feeling the Loop

Guinness, Green Castle Style 1994

Do You Know This Place 2000

Chapter 18 Merrie Maverick Lezar

America

Chapter 19 Hannah Pfeifer Spaeth

By the Sea

The Seasons Change

Evening on Squirrel Island

Chapter 20 Tavi Parusel

Iris

I Am a Water Particle

Bartleby

A Light in the Dark

INTRODUCTION

Luise Martha Krause and Georg Link moved separately to the United States from Germany toward the end of the nineteenth century, married, and created a family of artistic and intellectual vigor. The present text brings together writings by some of the offspring of Martha and George Link, people with different, unique voices.

Luise Martha Krause was born on February 12, 1856, in the small town of Hebsack, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She was the first of ten children, of whom only she and one sister and brother survived beyond one or two years of age. Coming from a family of little means, she had no dowry and had little prospect for marriage in Germany, especially after her father, a painter, died in 1876. She tried being a governess for a well-to-do family, but found it intolerable and decided to emigrate to the United States, intending to enter a seminary in Chicago and to become a deaconess. She arrived in Buffalo and there met her future husband, George Link, while they were attending the same church.

George Link was born on March 7, 1863, in the one-street town of Neuebersbach, a satellite of Münchsteinach, Bavaria, Germany, where he was baptized. He was the fourth of four sons and also had a younger sister who died in her first years. He had little formal education, but was trained in both woodworking and metalworking and had also been taught by his father about Thomas Jefferson, whom his father esteemed. He emigrated in the late 1880s and arrived in Buffalo, where his older brother, Johann Georg, had arrived a few years before. Having met Martha Krause in church, he quickly knew that she was the woman he wanted to marry.

George and Martha married on November 10, 1888, and lived in a house that he built himself at 226 Southampton Street, a plot that he purchased with funds that he brought with him from Germany. Their green-painted wooden house was simple, well tended, and functional. Its vegetable and fruit gardens were productive. Behind it was a two-story barn that served as George’s workshop.

George was a quiet, firm, practical man. He crafted airplanes (that did not fly, but were beautifully made) for his grandsons. He worked on his beehives, seemingly delighted to be covered with swarming honeybees. George eventually established himself as an independent homebuilder, and Martha raised their children at home, where music was a centerpiece of family life.

Luise Martha Link was a strong woman of great warmth, who believed in the importance of education and accomplishment. The Links loved traditions, such as making sure the doors of the living room were closed on Christmas Eve until the angel Gabriel (actually the next-door neighbor) had blown the Christmas trumpet, at which time the doors would be ceremoniously thrown open and the candles on the Christmas tree would be magically blazing.

George and Martha lived their remaining years in the house on Southampton Street, Martha living until 1931 and George until 1940.

Their six children were raised in an environment in which words, art, music, and thinking were valued. The oldest child, Henry, attended Yale, became a psychologist, and developed a psychological testing service in New York City. Henry wrote several best-selling books, including The Return to Religion and The Rediscovery of Morals. He married a poet, Carolyn Wilson, the cousin of the writer Edmund Wilson. The second child, Lena Marie, went to high school at the Northfield School for Girls. She trained as a singer. Their younger brother, Frederick, graduated from Harvard, became an engineer, and was the tenor in the family quartet, which included Lena (soprano), Henry (bass), and Esther (alto). Esther, the next younger child, attended Mount Holyoke College and became a schoolteacher. It was she who was largely responsible for scuttling the original plans proposed for the new music hall then being considered in Buffalo and for enlisting the services of Eero Saarnin as the architect. Her younger sister Ruth became a dancer at a young age and went to Europe to study ballet, where she died of tuberculosis. The youngest sister, Elisabeth, went to Vassar College and then married Pitt Petri, an importer who had emigrated from Germany. They established, with Esther, a shop in Buffalo and later opened a branch on Madison Avenue in New York City. Also living with them was Christian, Martha’s nephew.

There was about the Link family a passion for learning and talking. Esther, especially, always had opinions she was not reluctant to express, with a surprising breadth of knowledge and discernment. The Links were animated and creative, whether making decorated birthday cakes, flower arrangements (Elisabeth’s specialty), Christmas decorations, or telling stories (frequently centered on members of the family).

The lineage of the entire Link family is shown in the genealogy.

Many of the writings in this collection were composed on or about Squirrel Island, a one-hundred-acre island three miles off the coast of Maine, near Boothbay Harbor. In order to keep the children out of Philadelphia during the poliomyelitis season, Ned and Lena Spaeth rented a cottage on Spruce Point, a wooded section near Boothbay Harbor, to which they started taking their children in the summer of 1932. In 1944, they bought a cottage on the south shore of Squirrel Island (three miles out to sea from Boothbay Harbor), on steeply sloping granite rocks about one hundred yards back from the edge of the open ocean. Squirrel Island was used by the Indians as a summer hunting ground and then was purchased in the middle 1800s by a group from Augusta, Maine, and developed into a summer colony. Squirrel Island continues to play a major role in the life of the Spaeth family, as will be apparent from the many poems that focus on the sea, the fog, and the other aspects of the island. Ned and Nancy, George and Ann, Karl and Ann, and their families all get together there every year.

Collecting these works is something that Esther, the second of Luise Martha and George’s daughters, might have done. She would probably have liked the idea of sharing among the family some of their creative expressions. The idea of a book of family writings surfaced around ten years ago. The impetus came primarily from a few of Martha and George Link’s descendants, especially those who have kept in contact with each other. An effort was made to contact all known offspring, outlining a plan, seeking suggestions, and soliciting contributions. While spouses of the Link descendants are an integral part of the extended family, so also are other relatives. Who to include raised issues of preference, exclusivity, and ability to contact everybody. Limiting those included to blood descendants had the disadvantages of imposing an arbitrary limitation and decreasing the breadth of the contributions, but had the advantage of a clear, workable plan. After further discussions, eighteen members of the family submitted writings. Some of these were surprises. All are included, editing being limited to correcting typographical errors, and ordering the works. Some deceased members were authors of books, essays, poems, and letters. A few of these works are included. Perhaps a second volume will appear with writings of other descendants, spouses, and other members of the related families.

It is hoped that this collection will be of interest to the members and friends of the Link family, providing some insights into the thinking and feeling of those represented.

George Link Spaeth

Philadelphia

October 2009

DESCENDANTS OF

GEORGE AND MARTHA LINK

1 George Link b: March 7, 1863, Neuebersbach, Bavaria, Germany d: 1940, Buffalo, NY

+   Luise Martha Kraus b: February 12, 1856, Hebsack, Baden-Württemberg, Germany m: November 10, 1888, Buffalo, NY d: 1931, Buffalo, NY

2   Henry Charles Link b: August 27, 1889 d: February 1952

+   Carolyn Croshy Wilson b: August 11, 1895 d: April 25, 1982, Scarsdale, NY

3   James Wilson Link b: December 23, 1918 d: June 8, 1983

+   Margaret Allegra Clifton b: June 25, 1920 d: April 2, 2001

4   Mary Cornelia Link b: December 22, 1953

+   William Wagner Spademan b: February 8, 1957

5   Sarah Emily Spademan Link b: November 12, 1995

4   James Clifton Link b: June 3, 1956 d: September 9, 2004

+   Kathleen Gribbon b: February 18, 1953

3   Robert Frederick Link b: August 5, 1920 d: June 10, 2010

+   Gladys Jamison Adams b: April 1, 1923

4   Carolyn Carter Link b: November 15, 1953

4   Charles Carpenter Link b: November 7, 1955

4   Gratia Wilson Link b: January 14, 1961

+   Anthony J. Cerretta b: March 2, 1957

5   Christopher James Cerreta b: December 25, 1983

5   Gratia Devon Cerreta b: December 12, 1987

5   Michael Anthony Cerreta b: June 15, 1990

3   Anne Luise Link b: April 22, 1925, Greenwich, CT

+   David Cummings Donaldson b: September 26, 1921, Mayoworth, WY

4   David Cummings Donaldson Jr. b: March 16, 1953

+   Patricia Reville b: February 27, 1954, Scarsdale, NY

5   Alexa Anne Donaldson b: September 21, 1983, Hanford, CT

5   Cynthia Donaldson b: May 12, 1986, Hanford, CT

5   Chloe Rose Donaldson b: December 23, 1988, Hanford, CT

5   Henry Reville Donaldson b: July 1, 1994, Hanford, CT

4   Henry Link Donaldson b: May 14, 1955, White Plains, NY

4   Alec McBride Donaldson b: November 18, 1957, White Plains, NY d: May 11, 2004 New York, NY

4   Robert James Fox Donaldson b: January 14, 1959, White Plains, NY

+   Carrie Fraser b: June 3, 1964, Schenectady, NY

5   Anne Emerick Donaldson b: February 24, 1996, Winchester, MA

5   Peter Fraser McBride Donaldson b: August 3, 1997, Winchester, MA

5   Jack James Cummings Donaldson b: February 14, 2001, Geneva, Switzerland

4   William Bull Donaldson b: July 22, 1961, Scarsdale, NY

+   Holly Tamny b: January 19, 1961, New York, NY

5   Seamus Alec McBride Donaldson b: February 22, 1997, Boston, MA

5   Benjamin Cummings Donaldson b: February 25, 2000, Boston, MA

5   Ethan Thomas Donaldson b: October 30, 2001, Boston, MA

2   Lena Marie Link b: September 7, 1891, Buffalo, NY d: July 11, 1985, Philadelphia, PA

+   Edmund Benjamin Spaeth b: April 22, 1890, Webster, NY m: June 15, 1918, Spartanburg, SC d: August 15, 1976, Philadelphia, PA

3   Edmund Benjamin Spaeth Jr. b: June 10, 1920

+   Nancy Wiltbank b: November 26, 1920 m: September 19, 1942, Church of the Good Shepherd, Philadelphia, PA

4   Eleanor Lea Spaeth b: May 18, 1944

+   Charles Beury Simons b: August 15, 1933 m: December 21, 1985

4   Suzanne Spaeth b: May 7, 1946

+   James Marinell m: June 9, 1968

5   April Marinell b: April 18, 1972

5   William Marinell b: February 22, 1974

+   Amanda Rothermel m: Squirrel Island, ME

6   Lena Wissler Marinell b: January 1, 2006

6   Olin Winslow Marinell b: July 27, 2007

4   Edmund Benjamin Spaeth III b: March 19, 1951

+   Margaret Lyon m: August 30, 1981

5   Victoria Eleanor Lea Spaeth b: August 9, 1985

5   Elizabeth Anna Marie Spaeth b: May 11, 1991

3   Philip George Spaeth b: September 29, 1921 d: May 16, 2000

+   Marcia Ryan

4   Merrie Marcia Spaeth b: August 23, 1948

+   Tex Lezar b: September 30, 1948 d: January 5, 2004

5   Philip Patrick Lezar b: July 22, 1987

5   Merrie Maverick Lezar b: October 4, 1991

4   Daniel David Spaeth b: September 10, 1952

*   2nd wife of Philip George Spaeth

+   Ann Hunter m: March 6, 1976

3   Karl Henry Spaeth b: March 12, 1929

+   Ann Dashiell Wieland b: October 28, 1936 m: September 20, 1960, St. Paul’s Church, Philadelphia, PA

4   Karl Henry Spaeth Jr. b: March 14, 1965

+   Victoria Claire Pierce m: October 16, 1999, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 22 East Chestnut Hill Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19118

5   Hannah Pfeifer Spaeth b: January 17, 2001

5   Martha Ann Spaeth b: April 30, 2003

5   Phoebe Spaeth b: October 21, 2004

5   Lily Spaeth b: April 26, 2007

4   Edmund Alexander Spaeth b: March 12, 1967

+   Christine Anne Tawczynski m: October 3, 1998, All Saints Roman Catholic Church, Great Barrington, MA

5   Lauren Taft Spaeth b: September 19, 2001

5   Collin Daniel Spaeth b: October 12, 2005

4   Christopher Philip Spaeth b: December 24, 1969

+   Julia Bartelme b: April 9, 1972 m: August 26, 1995

5   Emma Wieland Spaeth b: May 14, 2000

5   Gunner August Spaeth b: February 22, 2003

5   Dirk Dashiell Spaeth b: November 2, 2006

3   George Link Spaeth b: March 3, 1932, Philadelphia, PA

+   Ann Ward b: May 7, 1934, Detroit, MI m: May 17, 1958, Christ Church Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, MI

4   Kristin Lea Spaeth b: April 28, 1959, Boston, MA

+   William Charles Crowley b: October 4, 1957 m: September 29, 1981, St. Paul’s Church, Philadelphia, PA

5   Catherine Ann Crowley b: May 11, 1990, Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, London, England

5   Kiera Jane Crowley b: April 30, 1992, Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, London, England

4   George Link Spaeth Jr. b: December 11, 1960, Philadelphia, PA

+   Martina Parusel b: August 23, 1958, Frankfurt, Germany

5   Tavi Parusel b: September 23, 1989, Santa Fe, NM

4   Eric Edmund Spaeth b: January 7, 1964, Washington, D.C.

2   Frederick George Link b: October 9, 1892, Buffalo, NY d: May 5, 1953

+   Eleanore Sarah Merrill b: July 15, 1902, Boston, MA d: January 1, 1988

3   David Merrill Link b: February 5, 1930, Brooklyn, NY

+   Shirley Crane b: November 4, 1928, New Jersey

4   Susan Crane Link b: September 7, 1956

4   David Frederick Link b: October 4, 1958

3   Joanne Eleanore Link b: February 12, 1926, Baltimore, MD

+   Horace Reed III b: April 15, 1928, Buffalo, NY

4   Eleanore Merrill Reed b: March 26, 1959, Buffalo

4   Sarah Buell Reed b: January 27, 1966, Buffalo

3   Tyler Link

+   Michael Lowell Moser b: February 19, 1944, Syracuse, KS

4   Byron Montgomery Moser b: July 27, 1977, Concord, NH

4   Merrill Cone Moser b: February 18, 1983, Concord, NH

4   Newell Hanks Moser b: October 19, 1990, Concord, NH

4   Link Moser b: December 12, 1975 Concord, NH

+   Elizabeth Hickok b: May 8, 1976, Manchester, NH

5   Lily Catherine Moser b: December 7, 2007, Concord, NH

5   Henry Link Moser b: October 3, 2009, Manchester, NH

2   Esther Luise Link b: May 26, 1895, d: January 19, 1990

+   Edward Emig

2   Ruth Emilie Link b: June 3, 1898, d: November 25, 1927

2   Elisabeth Margareta Link b: May 12, 1900 d: May 13, 1979, Buffalo, NY

+   Pitt Petri b: August 20, 1897, Gronau, Germany d: June 19, 1988, Buffalo, NY

3   Pitt Petri Jr. b: June 14, 1939, Buffalo, NY

+   Mary Ellen Lowe b: August 6, 1945 m: October 7, 1967, Buffalo, NY

4   Pitt Petri III b: May 10, 1970, Buffalo, NY

+   Kelli Lynn Healey m: August 22, 1992

5   Pitt Petri IV b: March 1992

4   Harold Lowe Petri b: November 25, 1971

*   2nd wife of Pitt Petri Jr.

+   Anne Josephine Weedon b: May 7, 1958, Jamestown, NY m: Aft. 1990, Buffalo, NY

4   Ralegh Renfrowe Pitt Petri b: October 23, 1997

Chapter 1

Henry Charles Link

HENRY CHARLES LINK

Dr. Henry Charles Link was born in Buffalo, New York, on August 27, 1889, the oldest of the six children of George and Martha Link, who had come from Germany.

He attended public schools in Buffalo and then went on to Yale University, graduating in 1913. Continuing at Yale, he earned a PhD in psychology. During this time, he was the manager of the Yale Bowl, including its construction.

After Yale, he took employment with Remington Arms in New Haven, providing professional services in job design and hiring. Out of this experience came two books, Education in Industry and Employment Psychology.

In 1920 he became advertising manager at Lord & Taylor in New York. In 1927 he moved to Gimbel Brothers in Pittsburgh. Out of these experiences came The New Psychology of Advertising and Selling.

In 1931, the president of the Psychological Corporation of America, a Yale classmate, invited him to become second in command at that company in New York City. Now he was in his milieu. He introduced many new concepts and techniques, including the Personality Quotient. In his personal counseling work, he noticed that his advice to clients was often summarized by a quotation from the Bible, with which he was familiar from his Lutheran upbringing. This led to The Return to Religion, an instant and durable best seller that went through at least forty-five printings.

He went on to write three more well-received books, The Rediscovery of Man, The Rediscovery of Morals, and The Way to Security. He was widely quoted in those years and became a well-known figure on the talk show circuit (radio at that time).

He married Carolyn Wilson, and they had three children, James Wilson Link, Robert Frederick Link, and Anne Luise Link Donaldson. (James and Robert appear in this book.) He died an untimely death in 1952.

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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS

ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA • MADRAS

MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

OF CANADA, LIMITED

TORONTO

THE

REDISCOVERY

OF MAN

By

Henry C. Link, Ph.D.

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NEW YORK

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1938

Copyright, 1938, by

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

–––––

All rights reserved—no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in magazine or newspaper.

–––––

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1938.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AMERICAN BOOK-STRATFORD PRESS, INC., NEW YORK

Dedicated to the Memory of

THOMAS CARLYLE Especially his great chapter

The Everlasting No

WILL-POWER

How strong is a person’s will? What is will-power? Is it a subconscious force of unknown quantity? Is it something that can be developed, and if so how? These questions go to the heart of the problem of personality. Every person dissatisfied with himself or striving to achieve a better life asks himself these questions in some form or other. Can I be the master of my fate, within what limits, and how?

One of the traits in the P.Q. or Personality Quotient test is that called self-determination. This trait is measured by the extent to which the individual has acquired habits of doing the things he knows he should do rather than the things he merely feels like doing, things which are right rather than things which are always pleasant. For example, the child may acquire the habit of doing his homework first and listening to the radio afterwards, of practicing the piano when he would rather be reading a story book, of going to a Scout meeting when he would rather be seeing a motion picture, of telling the uncomfortable truth when an evasion would be so much more pleasant. Hundreds of specific habits like these are acquired by the child only under discipline. They represent activities and standards which the parents or society consider desirable and which they enforce regardless of the child’s desires, impulses or arguments. When the child has acquired these habits he has also acquired the standards or ideals they represent.

This, psychologically, is the origin of will-power. Having been determined by his parents up to a point, but not too far, the child gains the power to determine himself. He has developed a collection of activities and standards which he values above his personal impulses, and a momentum of habits and skills which enables him to do those things which are desirable rather than those which are merely pleasant.

Often when we are dealing with young people or adults whose personalities and will-power are weak, their history compels us to talk to them somewhat as follows: "Your basic difficulty is that you have always relied too heavily on your own judgment. You have been governed by the principle of doing as you pleased or thought best. Possibly your parents, in your early childhood, permitted you far too much freedom in having your own way. You developed a will of your own. You became self-willed. The more you had your own way the more you took it. Therefore, instead of learning to do a great many things which would have been good for your development, you did only those things which you wanted to do. Instead of learning to do the things which other people and the world consider desirable, you did only those which you judged desirable.

"Now that you realize that something must be done, you are beset by a sense of inferiority. You are doubtful about your will-power to do even the things you want to do. You are confused and uncertain both about what you want to do and about what you ought to do. Our personality tests reflect this state in that they rate you below average in habits of self-sufficiency or making your own decisions. By developing a personal standard of living in accord with your own ideas, you have developed chaos rather than certainty. Your personally managed standard of action has deteriorated into an unmanageable collection of conflicts.

"The remedy for this situation is to adopt some definite goal and program of action such as we may now agree on. This goal and this program may not be easy. Much of it may run counter to your inclinations and personal impulses. However, as soon as you have definitely adopted it, many of your decisions will be automatically simplified and made easier. You will be like a traveler with a destination in mind. The road may not be perfectly clear, but when tempting by-ways or distractions present themselves, you will at least have some standard by which to recognize them and reject them.

This program, once adopted, must become for you a gold standard of thinking and acting. That is, instead of wasting your thoughts on how to avoid it or make it easier, you will learn to take it for granted and concentrate your energies on carrying it into action. Your present weak will-power is due to your excessive planning to adjust the world to suit your personal desires. The more you planned to suit yourself, the more confused you became. Now you will stop trying to adjust the plan to yourself and adjust yourself to the plan instead. The sportsman, instead of wasting his energies arguing about the rules of the game, concentrates his energies on playing the game. So you, instead of thinking and worrying about whether this program is practical or pleasant, will economize your energies for its execution.

This is the psychology of will-power and its development. The will must have objectives and standards on which to fasten itself. When the proper standards have not been developed in childhood or youth, then an artificial decision like that just described becomes necessary. In such a decision the tremendous resources of human nature are dramatically revealed. Here we see individuals rising to great heights. Here we see them call on an inner strength representing sheer will. The psychologist who refuses to become a wet-nurse to his clients often sees this phenomenon. It is, of course, the basic phenomenon in religion, where the individual is born again by subordinating his personally managed morality to the gold standard of a higher order.

No individual is capable of many supreme decisions or calls upon sheer will-power. However, if a wise decision is made, the detailed mechanics or habits for its execution are more likely to be developed. The level of his capacity for future decisions will be raised. Even in a simple matter like a child’s deciding to do his homework in short division instead of having a good time, this decision makes him more capable of doing long division, etc. The son, who decides to give up an allowance from his parents and to embark on a less comfortable plan of action, is on the way toward developing habits of self-reliance and economic independence.

The weak will-power of adults, we find, can often be attributed to one of three causes. Their parents either allowed them as children to have their own way too much. Or they imposed their own will on them too completely or for too long a time. Or they possessed no adequate set of standards or ideals themselves and therefore lacked any consistent plan of discipline for their children. The first two causes really arise from the third. Only an impersonal standard followed by the parents and applied impartially can avoid the excesses of too little discipline or of parental possessiveness.