Paul Blanshard

Paul Blanshard

Paul Beecher Blanshard (August 27, 1892 – January 27, 1980) was a controversial American author, assistant editor of The Nation magazine, lawyer, socialist, secular humanist, and from 1949 an outspoken critic of Catholicism.

Paul and his twin brother Brand were born in Fredericksburg, Ohio where their father, Francis, was a Congregational minister. Rev. Blanshard and his wife, Emily Coulter Blanshard were Canadian. They met in high school while living in Weston, Ontario, immediately north of Toronto. When the twins were 12 months, their mother fell down stairs holding a lighted oil lamp. Her clothing caught fire, and she died a day later of severe burns.

The Rev. Blanshard brought his sons to Grand Rapids, Michigan for maternal care by his mother, Orminda Adams Blanshard, widow of Methodist clergyman Shem Blanshard. Francis left them in her care, briefly to pastor a church in Helena, Montana. In 1899 the four moved south to Edinburg, Ohio. Upon being diagnosed with tuberculosis, Francis was advised to seek the drier climate of the American West. In 1902, Rev. Blanshard bade his mother and sons goodbye. They moved northwest to Bay View, Michigan and he moved alone to Albuquerque, New Mexico where, in 1904, he died, alone in a tent.

Orminda Blanshard raised her grandsons on an annual pension of $250 from the Methodist church while the boys washed dishes at a restaurant. Realizing their need for good education, the family relocated to Detroit in 1908 so the boys could graduate from the well-known Central High School. Soon both were at the top of their class, joined the debating team, and Brand was made class Poet. In 1910 the Blanshard brothers entered the University of Michigan, whose annual tuition was only $30 for state residents.

"It was natural that Brand and I should go in for debating and oratory, and each of us won the university's oratorical contest in successive years. Further, we each won in successive years the National Peace Oratorical Contest in which almost one hundred colleges participated. - We almost lived in the college library and reveled in its riches, counting ourselves among the blessed of the earth and coming out somewhere near the top of our class as a result. When we were juniors in 1913, Brand won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford and soon left for England. Perhaps that was good for me because I was now compelled to stand on my own, becoming much more sociable, outgoing and aggressive. During those college years I arrived at two decisions about myself. I would be a socialist and I would enter the Christian ministry. In retrospect, the first decision seems entirely natural, but the second decision was the worst blunder of my life."