Tony Jones: May 2008 Archives

Anthony Bower Hawthorne, “The Professor,” was born on a farm in Illinois in 1868. His father was a ne’er-do-well sharecropper, poet, and drunk. His mother was a mousy woman who occasionally spoke in tongues, but never in church.

The eldest of three brothers, A.B. had an unremarkable childhood. Dour and melancholy, he seemed to let his family down at every turn. Although he always did his chores as told, he was joyless on the farm. Primarily as a means to rid themselves of him, A.B.’s parents sent him to away to school in town beginning at age 12, and he was only allowed to come home one weekend per month and one week at Christmas.

But it was there, at school, that young A.B. came into his own. His mind crackled at what he learned. He read voraciously, often staying up well past his aunt and uncle, with whom he lived, reading by the light of an oil lamp. And, of all subjects, theology was his favorite by far.

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