Episode Details

Though you’ve probably never heard of him, book editor Eugene Exman (1900–1975) exerted tremendous influence on the shape of American religion in the twentieth century. 

On this episode, special projects editor Miles Doyle speaks with Stephen Prothero, author of the new Exman biography God the Bestseller: How One Editor Transformed American Religion One Book at a Time.

Prothero explains how Exman’s relationships with religious leaders like Dorothy Day, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. helped shift American religious discourse away from denominational boundaries and toward a more personal, individual experience of God.

For further reading: 

• Dorothy Day’s collected writing for Commonweal
• Gary Dorrien on Martin Luther King’s theological mentors
• Gordon Marino reviews a biography of William James