Lyman Abbott

Lyman Abbott served as a Congregational minister, editor, and author whose public writing connected religion, education, literature, and social questions. The Guide To Reading is a Pocket University volume whose title page reads The Guide to Reading. Abbott edited it with Asa Don Dickinson and other contributors, and wrote its opening essay on books as ornaments, tools, and friends. John Macy, Richard Le Gallienne, and Dickinson provided additional sections, making the volume a collaborative guide rather than Abbott’s work alone. Laicus first appeared under the fuller title Laicus; or, The Experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish. Through a lay narrator, it considers church life and the practical responsibilities of a religious community. Abbott later became closely associated with The Christian Union, renamed The Outlook, and wrote extensively as a pastor and commentator. These two books show complementary sides of his work: one organizes a shared program of reading, while the other uses narrative perspective to explore belief in everyday institutional life.