Against Incredible Odds: Life of a Twentieth Century Iranian Bahá’í Family is the latest in the Bahá’í Heritage series. It tells the story of one family from the Iranian town of Nayríz whose life has spanned the whole history of the Bahá’í Faith, from its earliest days to the present. Their story is the story of the Bahá’í Cause itself.

The Rouhani family was a direct witness to the growth of the Bahá’í Faith and also to its persecution, from the time of Bahá’u’lláh, through the ministries of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi and to the establishment and flowering of the Universal House of Justice. At every turn the family faced major misfortunes fires, floods, the untimely death of their children and spouses, as well as the persecution and difficulties that swept over the Bahá’í community yet at every turn they served the Faith as its defenders, teachers and pioneers. Again, their story is the story of the Bahá’í community itself.

Written as a tribute to one family, the story portrays what Bahá’í parents and ancestors went through to pass down to their children the precious legacy they possess today. It is a story of lifelong struggle against incredible odds, of renouncing worldly pleasures to achieve higher aims, of accepting material deprivations to gain spiritual strength and of foregoing the desire of wanting to be physically close to one’s children, the cherished desire of every parent, to enable them to scatter far and wide and work towards the achievement of Bahá’u’lláh’s pivotal goal of unifying humankind.

Continuing the vivid story of Ali-Kuli Khan's diplomatic career, Marzieh Gail takes her readers on the family's travels from Tehran to Washington and San Francisco, to Paris, Istanbul and Tiflis and back to Persia.

The story provides new insights into 'Abdu'l-Bahá 's visit to America and the early days of the Bahá'í Faith there and gives an unusual perspective on the Versailles Conference of 1919. Vignettes of President Wilson, Phoebe Hearts and other characters from the early days of this century are interspersed among fascinating pictures of Persia at the turn of the century.

Drawn from the papers of her father and the diaries and letters of her mother, Marzieh Gail's Arches of the Years is more than a mere sequel to Summon Up Remembrance. A new character enters the picture - Marzieh herself, who as a child accompanied her parents to their various posts. Thus this new book is as much Marzieh's own story as it is the story of her parents.

The author's wit and perception are already apparent in the child Marzieh, resulting in a story that is both moving and funny, and sometimes tragic. Marzieh's memories of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, and her final tribute to him, are among the most sensitively drawn passages in a lifetime of distinguished writing.

The daughter of the first Persian-American Bahá'í marriage, Marzieh Gail has never ceased to cast a perceptive and humorous eye over the dilemmas that inevitably arise between modes of life and thought so different from each other. She is an interpreter of East to West and vice versa.

Marzieh graduated from Stanford University 'With Great Distinction' and as a Phi Beta Kappa and she has an MA from the University of California at Berkeley. She was the first woman to work on the staff of a Tehran newspaper. She spent ten years as a Bahá'í pioneer in Europe where she undertook historical research.

Mrs Gail is well-known for her essays and anecdotes published in her books Dawn over Mount Hira and Other People, Other Places. Her historical works include Persia and the Victorians, The Sheltering Branch and Life in the Renaissance. Her translations from Persian and Arabic include The Seven Valleys by Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá's The Secret of Divine Civilization. This is the sixth book of her writing which is of particular interest to Bahá'ís.

The colourful story of the first Persian-American Bahá'í family and their travels in the service of Persia and her princes. In Arches of the Years, Marzieh Gail discloses unique memories of Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to America and numerous stories of Shoghi Effendi.

See BIO108 above for a fuller description.

Connections tells the stories of some marvelous and interesting people who found themselves at the centre of great happenings associated with the birth of the Faith of the Báb.

- Dr. William Cormick, who attended the Báb in Tabriz on a number of occasions and whose father hailed from Co. Kilkenny.

- Lady Mary Sheil from Co. Clare, wife of the British Minister to the court of the Shah, whose published diary (Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, published in 1856) contains an important early account of the Martyrdom of the Báb.

The collection of essays also catalogues the lives of the first Irish Bahá’ís and the first Bahá’ís to live in Ireland.

- Henry and Mary Culver. Henry was the U.S. Consul in Cobh, Co. Cork from 1906 to 1910.

- Dr. Frederick D’Evelyn from Belfast, who served the Faith with distinction in the bay area of San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century.

- The Ffordes of Donegal, an intriguing couple with an even more intriguing story

The volume, complete with photographs (including a rare photograph of Dr. William Cormick), also tells the story of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Cobh in the south of Ireland and the Master’s historic trip aboard the S.S. Celtic in 1912.

With a Foreword by Professor Seosamh Watson.

The Life and Times of England's outstanding Bahá'í pioneer worker.

Who was Ethel Jenner Rosenberg? A Victorian spinster ... A painter of miniatures and portraits ... The fisrt English woman in her native country to accept Bahá'u'lláh as the Manifestation of God for this day ...

Using Ethel Rosenberg's own diaries and letters, minutes and notes from the meetings of the first Bahá'í institutions in Britain, and other original documents, Robert Weinberg explores the life of this fascinating woman, described by Shoghi Effendi as 'England's outstanding Bahá'í pioneer worker'.

August Forel is well-known among Bahá'ís as the recipient of one of the most weighty Tablets ever written by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This book is an original and comprehensive study of the great Swiss scientist in his relationship to the Bahá'í Faith and particularly his activities as a Bahá'í during the last ten years of his life. It is based on entirely new research, including papers specially made available from Forel's family and the extensive library holdings of Forel's works and papers in Switzerland.

August Forel (1848-1931) was one of Switzerland's most eminent scientists, world-renowned as a psychiatrist, entomologist and anatomist. He was also prominent as a social reformer and peace-worker. He became a member of the Bahá'í Faith in 1921, but his activities as a Bahá'í have remained practically unknown to Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís alike.

This book describes how Forel, on accepting the Bahá'í Faith at the age of seventy-three, immediately set about propagating this message of reconciliation, harmony and peace. It also examines Forel's religious beliefs both before and after he became a Bahá'í, and it highlights how the understanding of Bahá'ís of their own religion, especially in the West, was greatly expanded and deepened under the guidance of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith. Finally, in a fusion of scholarly research and human sympathy, the book enables the reader to appreciate more fully the man who was described as 'a great citizen of the Universal Brotherhood'.

John Paul Vader was born in Michigan in 1950 and became a Bahá'í in 1969. Three years later he went to live in Switzerland where he studied medicine at the University of Lausanne, qualifying in 1978. It was during a year's work in psychiatry that the author became interested in August Forel and decided to write his doctoral dissertation on professor Forel's relationship to the Bahá'í Faith, then little-known outside Bahá'í circles.

'I congratulate you with all my heart and, as August Forel's granddaughter, I thank you in the name of our family for this publication.' - Anne Marie Krugger-Brauns (daughter of Martha and Arthur Brauns-Forel)

'You have succeeded in remarkably portraying the breadth and especially the diversity of the encyclopaedic spirit of my father.' - Oscar Forel

Adam's mother had always maintained that her first-born was a difficult child right from the start. If he wasn't moving, he wasn't happy. . . he was a discontent.

Adam was born a son amongst the blessed upon the earth. But he could not abide the blessing until he understood it and felt himself worthy.

The United States, melting pot of the world - or cauldron? For Adam, growing up there in the 1960s and 70s, the heat was fierce, and he had to go through the middle of it - the excesses, the rootlessness and alienation of his generation. But all the time Adam was trying to understand the world and his place in it. And when he becomes a member of the Bahá'í Faith, he discovers that this is 'not the end and conclusion of the great yearning. It is only the first step'.

Bruce Wells was born in 1957 and became a member of the Bahá'í Faith in 1976. 'From Discontent', his first novel, was written in India as part of a Bachelor's degree for Friends World College, Huntingdon, New York. He then studied creative writing for an MA at Antioch International University.

"Africa is in his soul, the world at large in his mind and heart." - Dakar Press Release, 1966

Robert Hayden was winner of the Grand Prize for Poetry at the First World Festival of Negro Arts, and 1975 Fellow of the Academy of American Poets. He served two terms as Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, was a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and, until his death in 1980, professor of English at the University of Michigan and poetry editor for the Bahá'í magazine World Order.

Robert Hayden refused to be labelled as either a 'black' or a 'Bahá'í' poet. Yet no modern poet has written so well from both these perspectives - as a Black American in a violent society, and as a Bahá'í in, he firmly believed, a period of crucial transition for mankind.

Black America and the Bahá'í community in the United States would have claimed him for their own. But he would neither allow his work to be politicized nor would he make his poems impassioned protestations of Faith. Nevertheless, in the last fifteen years of his life, he was recognized as a major contemporary poet, and received numerous marks of public esteem.

In this book John Hatcher examines the various dimensions of Hayden's poetry, and especially the link between the poet and his Faith, which has remained largely unexplored and imperfectly understood. The author writes from his own perspective as Robert Hayden's friend and fellow Bahá'í, as a poet and teacher himself and a serious student of Hayden's poetry, and in uncovering its Bahá'í frame of reference he gives us Hayden the religious poet - not a rhetorical 'official' poet, but a true poetic voice whose faith is present, at a profound level, in all his work.

Curtis Kelsey was a simple man who never went to college and never gained worldly fame. But in 1921, at the age of 27, he was asked by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to install the first electric lighting in the Shrine of the Báb. He spent two months in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's household and it changed his life.

George Ronald, Oxford; ISBN 0-85398-121-3; Softcover; 204 pages; 20.9 x 13.8 cm

This is not simply a retelling of the life story of Queen Marie of Romania; rather it recounts the deepening relationship between the first monarch to accept the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, and the religion she championed. The author has drawn on Queen Marie's own letters and diary entries, and the letters and articles of her great friend and teacher, Hand of the Cause of God Martha Root, as well as previously unpublished materials found in the Romanian State Archives and the archives of Bahá'í institutions. All this provides a unique glimpse into the life of Queen Marie, and her struggle to proclaim the new religion, despite the oppressive political bonds placed on her.

'Very profound. I know of no other so profound.'

This was the final conclusion about the Bahá'í Faith of the great nineteenth-century writer, Leo Tolstoy, a few months before his death in 1910.

Tolstoy first heard of the Bahá'í teachings in 1894 at a time when the movement was known hardly at all in the West, and its leader was a prisoner in an obscure outpost of the Turkish Empire. This book traces the developments and fluctuations in Tolstoy's attitude as more information was made available to him. It is based on the author's correspondence and diaries, as well as the memoirs of those close to him and Bahá'ís who came into contact with him. Most of the material is here made available for the first time in English, translated from Russian, Persian and French, and includes a hitherto unpublished Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

Life of the daughter of the founder of Esperanto.

'Difficulties are our tests. They show us the strength and weakness of our spirit, the intensity and ardor of our search, and they temper us and make us stronger and stouter.' Lidia Zamenhof

Lidia had seen the effects of brutal pogroms, of war and its aftermath of racial, religious and national strife. For six years from 1932 she travelled through Europe and the United States, teaching Esperanto and speaking out against the rising tide of nationalism and war fever. When tragic circumstances took her back to Poland on the eve of World War II, she would be forced to confront the ultimate test in the Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazi occupation.

Florence Mayberry writes:

'The dramatic story of Lidia Zamenhof, daughter of Ludwik Zamenhof, the linguistic genius who originated Esperanto, is sensitively and clearly set forth in this biography. It combines a fascinating presentation of Esperanto's development, proclaimed as an instrument to attain world unity, with equally fascinating vistas of Bahá'í history. Most dramatically it reveals the strange paradoxes in this Polish Jewish girl's life. Once refusing to even speak Esperanto, she became its champion. Once professing near-atheism, she became the 'spiritual child' of Bahá'í heroine Martha Root and arose to valiant, spiritually illumined championship of her beloved Bahá'í Faith.

Wisdom, courage, struggle, achievement, and a final brush of tragedy impel the reader through this excellent portrayal.'

Philip Hainsworth came across the Bahá'í Faith by accident, thinking only that he was attending a talk by a presenter involved in television - a technology so new that only a tiny number of rich families possessed receivers. He joined a community of fervent believers, scattered and few. When he died, memorial meetings were held around the world. His life saw the transformation of a religious community as it expanded around the globe, and it was the constant drive of his life to take part in the transformation. Only rarely in the history of mankind do religious movements arise, so this autobiography of one of its harder working members is that much more interesting.

Inspiring biographical sketches of nine early Western believers, who were all eulogized, after their passing, by Shoghi Effendi together in a single message, as a "distinguished band of co-workers". Ella Bailey, Dorothy Baker, Hyde Dunn, Lua Getsinger, Marion Jack, Susan Moody, Keith Ransom-Kehler and Martha Root were shining examples of the magnificent pioneering services that the early Western Bahá'í community rendered during the crucial years of the formative era of the Faith. Their stories testify to the eagerness of their love for the Cause of God - each embodied a love which does not wait.

Author: Marguerite Reimer Sears

They can’t really be separated. We always think of them together: Bill and Marguerite; Marguerite and Bill. It is one breath, one phrase. Thus the book is Marguerite . . . and more about Bill. Here is a story for the ages.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Bahá'í Faith in Malaysia, Shantha Sundram brings us an enchanting collection of stories of some of the legendary Bahá'í figures in the country. We are treated to first-hand accounts, not just from luminaries, but also from unsung heroes. As you are transported back half a century in time, discover how they found their faith and the effect it had on those around them.

Many of these spiritual journeys are linked in mysterious ways, and the tales are skilfully woven to reveal these 'mystic connections'. It is a book which offers Malaysian Bahá'ís a taste of their rich spiritual heritage, and promises a delightful journey for anyone wishing to be inspired by the spiritual tapestry of life.

Among the graves in the Sofia War Cemetery is a simple granite headstone, bearing a remarkable inscription: Marion Jack, 1866-1954, Immortal Heroine'. How did this lone Canadian painter come to be in Bulgaria? Why did she choose to stay in this unfamiliar country all through the ravages of the Second World War? This fascinating and well-researched book tells the story of one woman, who was an adventurer who travelled by boat up the Yukon, an art student in Paris, a suffragette in London, a teacher in the household of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a pioneer who took the message of Bahá'u'lláh to the heart of the Balkans-unstoppable, indomitable, she was 'General Jack', who was never afraid to dare.

One morning in war-time Britain a schoolteacher gives a little yellow pamphlet to a fellow bus passenger. And so William Hellaby, a life-long seeker after truth, is launched on his first investigation of the Bahá’í Faith, but in the end he decides instead to train for the ministry in the Unitarian church. After a ten-year interval, and now recently married to a woman whose family’s Unitarian church membership goes back 200 years, Billie embarks with his wife on his second examination of the Bahá’í Faith. Their studies throw new light on Gospel teachings, challenge long-held ideas and beliefs, and bring them closer to Christ than ever before. Growing commitment to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh faces them with moral decisions and the fact that acceptance of the Bahá’í Faith will bring loss of home and livelihood for a family with three young children, and plunges them into crisis. Eventually, even Grandpa becomes interested . . .

This thoughtful and challenging account, in which Madeline Hellaby relates how she and her husband investigated the Bahá’í Faith, will appeal particularly to readers wishing to understand something of the questions facing students of the Faith from Christian denominations.

This is a vivid and touching account of a young girl's pilgrimage to Haifa in the autumn of 1913. Born into one of the earliest and most illustrious Bahá'í families, the author was the daughter of Ibn-i-Asdaq, one of the four Hands of the Cause of God appointed by Bahá'u'lláh. She was just sixteen years old when she had the unforgettable spiritual experience of going on pilgrimage with her family, and of meeting the Master. The freshness of her personality, and the spiritual eagerness of youth permeate the pages of this charming vignette, making this a charming addition to any Bahá'í bookshelf. Amongst its many delights are affectionate pen-portraits of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Greatest Holy Leaf.

'Among the miracles which distinguish this sacred dispensation is this, that women have evinced a greater boldness than men when enlisted in the ranks of the Faith.'

'Abdu'l-Bahá

Western women have always been in the forefront of teaching the Bahá'í Faith. Here are short pen portraits of seven such women whose services to the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh have spanned the twentieth century. Emogene Hoagg, Claudia Coles, Anna Kunz, Amelia Collins, Kate Dwyer, Ella Bailey, Ella Quant -some well known, others less so -all devoted their lives to the promotion and development of the Faith they loved.

Zebby Whitehead (1911-1998) was born in New York City and attended Harvard University. As a child he was fascinated by films and the theatre and decided to make his career as an actor. He appeared in many plays and films with such well known stars as Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. He wrote two other books of biographical sketches of Western Bahá'ís, Some Early Bahá'ís of the West and Some Bahá'ís to Remember.

Sarah Ann Ridgway was the first Baha'i in the north of England. She was a working class woman, a silk weaver, born in the middle of the 19th century into a family of cotton weavers. Set against the backdrop of a world moving from an agrarian society to an industrial one, Sarah Ann's story gives us a glimpse into the lives of ordinary working people, their households, factories and schools. But there is a story within this story: the determined quest of one Baha'i woman to unveil the life of another and thereby afford us an insight into our own history.

This book, like its predecessor Some Early Bahá'ís of the West, is a collection of short biographical sketches of some of the Western Bahá'ís of the earlier years of this century. It also tells the story of the first Japanese Bahá'í, and of the famous Bahá'í pioneers to Australia, Clara and Hyde Dunn. Other distinguished names include the Hand of the Cause, Horace Holley; and there is a fascinating account of the early days of the Bahá'í community in Manchester including the period of Shoghi Effendi's residence in England while he was at Oxford University. Once again the author has recaptured the heady atmosphere of those pioneering days and any reader interested in the Bahá'í Faith will catch something of the spirit which moved its early adherents.

This book, first printed in 1976, is a collection of short biographical sketches of twenty-four of the early Bahá'ís of the Western world. All of them but one acknowledged the station of Bahá'u'lláh during the lifetime of His son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and their intense loyalty and devotion to the Centre of the Covenant, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá was also known, is a thread running through the lives of all of them. In addition, all but two had the inestimable privilege of meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá, either as a result of making the pilgrimage to the Holy Land or during His own visits to the West during 1911 and 1912. These essays, about those remarkable and lucky few who were among the first in the West to recognize the new sun rising from the East, throw a wealth of light on their pioneering endeavours, and any reader interested in the Bahá'í Faith will catch something of the spirit which moved its first adherents.

'I feel sure that present and future students of history will benefit greatly from these essays written with much love and purity of heart.' Hand of the Cause of God A. Q. Faizi

Bernard Leach (1887-1979) is the most accomplished and distinguished British potter, with a lasting, worldwide reputation. His life, his artistic achievements, and his legacy have become intimately connected with his commitment to the social and spiritual teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. Most Bahá'ís have heard of Bernard Leach; many admirers of his work know that it has a spiritual dimension; yet there has never been one single volume in which the general reader could discover more about what Leach thought and wrote. This new book is an anthology of Bernard Leach's writings on art, life, and philosophy-all demonstrating his lifelong desire to play his part in helping East and West embrace.

Marzieh Gail

The fascinating story of a pleasure-seeking Persian boy who became one of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's leading English translators and united East and West in the first Persian-American Bahá'í marriage. Here is the colourful story of Ali-Kuli Khan, the first to translate into English such important works as the 'Seven Valleys', the 'Kitáb-i-Íqán', and the Glad-Tidings. Told by his daughter, herself a well-known author and translator, Khan's story is based on his memoirs and personal papers. Through them we are given a unique and detailed picture of life in Persia at the end of the century, complete with an explanation of that oft-met protocol 'ta'áruf'. We follow the young Khan, dressed as a dervish, on his adventurous walk to 'Akká and note his transformation from a frivolous youth to a skilled translator for 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

In his nearly two years as a member of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's household, Khan both translated for those first groups of American pilgrims to visit the Holy Land and rendered 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets into English. In 1901 Khan was sent to America to assist Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl and to translate the great teacher's book, The Bahá'í Proofs, into English. It was in America that Khan met and fell in love with a Boston society girl, Florence Breed. Their Victorian romance unfolds in the delicate love-letters written by Florence to Khan. Their marriage, the first between a Persian and an American Bahá'í, not only symbolized but portrayed the unity between East and West taught by the Bahá'í Faith.

'Summon Up Remembrance' is peopled with such familiar figures as Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl, Laura Barney, Edward and Lua Getsinger, Mary Hanford Ford and the Atábak. But this is a book dedicated to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and it is His wisdom and teaching that characterizes it. A unique feature is the inclusion of the Tablet of Cremation revealed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, here published for the first time in English in a new translation by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.

The story continues in Arches of the Years.