Dorothy Day (1897 – 1980) was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert. In 1933, with Peter Maurin, she established the Catholic Worker, creating a community dedicated to direct aid for the poor and homeless, solidarity with the dispossessed, and social change. Day participated in the labor struggles of the 1930s, the Civil Rights movement, and nonviolent, pacifist opposition to WWII, Vietnam and Cold War militarism, and her cause for canonization is open in the Catholic Church.
Robert Ellsberg was part of the Catholic Worker community in New York City for the last five years of Dorothy Day’s life (1975-80), and served for two years as managing editor of The Catholic Worker. He has also edited Dorothy Day: Selected Writings and All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day, and is the author of All Saints.