Trouble in Paradise: Dillwyn Parrish,Praise the Lord!,and Religious Fervor in Southern California in the 1930s

Abstract

Dillwyn Parrish's 1932 novel Praise the Lord! depicts Midwestern migrants and their search for the Promised Land in Southern California, the shattered illusions that follow the highest of their hopes, and the strong, sometimes misplaced, and occasionally fanatical religious fervor in the Southland of the early twentieth century, both historically and in the literature of the region. It is an effective reflection of the quest by newcomers to Los Angeles for spiritual as well as economic fulfillment. It is an undeservedly overlooked work that merits a place in the literary and cultural histories of Los Angeles, particularly for its stark, unromanticized depiction of the spiritual zeal of many newcomers to the Southland.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adamic

Louis

. Laughing in the Jungle: The Autobiography of an Immigrant in America. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932.

Bissell

Shelton

. “Vaudeville at Angelus Temple.” The Outlook 23 May 1928: 126+.

“Books: Fiction: October 18, 1926.” Rev. of Smith Everlasting, by Dillwyn Parrish. Time.com , 18 Oct. 1926. Web. 29 Dec. 2009.

“Books: Sister Anne.” Rev. of Tomorrow Morning, by Parrish

Anne

. Time.com , 10 Jan. 1927. Web. 27 Dec, 2009.

Engh

Michael E.

S. J. “Practically Every Religion Being Represented.” Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s. Eds. Sitton

Tom

Deverell

William

. Berkeley: U of California P, 2001. 201–219.

“Fiction: More Smithness.” Rev. of Gray Sheep, by Dillwyn Parrish. Time.com , 8 Aug. 1927. Web. 27 Dec. 2009.

Fisher

M.F.K.

Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories, 1933–1941. New York: Pantheon, 1993.

Fitzgerald

F. Scott

. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Collier, 1986.

McPherson

Aimee Semple

. In the Service of the King: The Story of My Life. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1927.

10.

McWilliams

Carey

. “Aimee Semple McPherson: ‘Sunlight in My Soul.’” 1921. The Aspirin Age: 1919–1941. Ed. Leighton

Isabel

. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949. 50–80.

11.

McWilliams

Carey

. “Don't Shoot Los Angeles.” Unknown California: Classic and Contemporary Writing on California Culture, Society, History, and Politics. Eds. Eisen

Jonathan

Fine

David

Eisen

Kim

. NY: Collier Books, 1985. 193–212.

12.

Mencken

H. L.

“Sister Aimee.”

Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology. Ed. Ulin

David L.

, New York: Library of America, 2002. 63–66.

13.

Newton

A. Edward

. “The Course of Empire.” Atlantic Monthly 150 (September 1932): 298–304.

14.

Parrish

Dillwyn

. Praise the Lord!. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1932.

15.

Powell

Lawrence Clark

. Land of Fiction: Thirty-Two Novels and Stories about Southern California from “Ramona” to “The Loved One.”. Los Angeles: Glen Dawson, 1952.

16.

“Praise the Lord! by Dillwyn Parrish.” Times Literary Supplement (12 May 1932): 352.

17.

“Religious Mania.” Rev. of Praise the Lord!, by Dillwyn Parrish. The New York Times 10 April 1932: 15.

18.

“Sister Aimee.”

Los Angeles History Project. Prod. Kathleen Dowdey and Jed Dannenbaum. KCET, Los Angeles, 1990.

19.

Starr

Kevin

. Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s. New York: Oxford UP, 1990.

20.

Waugh

Evelyn

. The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy. 1948. Middlesex: Penguin, 1974.

21.

Weaver

John D.

L.A.: El Pueblo Grande. Pasadena: Ward Ritchie Press, 1973.

22.

West

Nathanael

. The Day of the Locust. 1939. NY: Bantam, 1957.

23.

Wilson

Edmund

. A Documentary of the Twenties and Thirties. Garden City: Doubleday, 1958.