John DuBois: Founding Father by Richard Shaw, the definitive biography of the founder of Mount St. Mary’s University, is now back in print. Originally published by the U.S. Catholic Historical Society in 1983, the biography was virtually out of print, raising the price for a copy to $4,025.40 on Amazon.com in 2017. The Mount responded by acquiring the rights to the book and signing with Wipf and Stocks Publishers to reprint this important work.
The book, which explores Father DuBois’s work as the founder of the Mount, superior of the Sisters of Charity and third bishop of the Diocese of New York, is available from the publisher and from Amazon. Shaw brings to life the man who had multiple nicknames. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton called him "The Pope," his students nicknamed him "Little Bonaparte" and Pope Gregory XVI addressed him as "my most particular friend." Father DuBois was just as comfortable felling lumber for the foundations of the Mount as he was riding through the night on horseback to minister to sick and dying Catholics in rural Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The painting featured on the book’s cover was completed by Mira Vizzala in 1830 and currently hangs in the Mount Archives, according to Jessica J. Whitmore, C’16, interim library director and university archivist.
Profits from sales of the book will be directed to preservation of the historic papers of John DuBois and others in the Mount Archives.