The Brother Juniper Collection
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The Brother Juniper Collection
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FRIEDSAM
MEMORIAL LIBRARY Journalism |
Brother Juniper Index Page Books Background Biography Examples
The Life of Brother Juniper
According to creator Fred McCarthy:
"It was the summer of '42: Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio was belting hits in 52 consecutive games. This record of DiMag's still stands. No one has come close to tying it.
In war-torn France, General Guderian's Nazi panzer units were blitzing cross-country toward Paris, virtually unopposed.
At Bona's Friedsam Library Fr. Boniface McConville was pressing a young cleric name of McCarthy to finish some campus signs. To add zip to his signs, McCarthy, who always signs his stuff "Mc", squiggled little friar cartoons along their borders.
Observing these over his shoulder, librarian Father Irenaeus remarked, "The cartoons reminded me of Brother Juniper, our Order's clown prince."
From that day on, McCarthy began reading up on Franciscan Brother Juniper, soon learning that he and Saint Francis were close buddies. Having grown up in Assisi, the two were 'townies'."
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Father Irenaeus Herscher with Brother Juniper in the Reading Room of Friedsam Memorial Library |
Mc's "Juniper" was first published in a collection entitled Brother Juniper in 1957. It appeared in newspapers via the Publisher's Syndicate of Chicago the following year, eventually seeing print in over 100 papers, with 15,000,000 readers, in the United States and abroad. There was some initial resistance from the Protestant newspaper community to an explicitly Franciscan character, but that dissipated over time as the little fellow's charm won out. In 1959 the comic won "The Brotherhood of the Year" award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
| Commenting on the attraction of Brother Juniper, his
little sunbeam in burlap, McCarthy noted, "Take someone from the Middle
Ages, put him in a modern setting and you have something funny right
there. He's catholic with a small 'c'. He's always trying to
help people but always slipping on a banana peel. Characters like
Brother Juniper, and Charlie Brown, lose the battle but win the war." While Brother Juniper's press run ended in 1989, McCarthy hasn't forgotten him and he's experiencing a resurrection at Saint Bonaventure where he is regularly seen in the library. Update: Beginning in Dec. 2003, Brother Juniper will be appearing in the Florida Catholic on a regular basis. |
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For information about the historical Brother Juniper try:
Benedict, Rex. Oh...Brother Juniper! New York: Pantheon, 1963. Franciscan Institute BX4705.J98 B4
Bodo, Murray, OFM, Juniper: Friend of Francis, Fool of God. Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1983. Franciscan Institute BX4705.J98 B62 1983
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Page created 01 Dec. 2003 by Dennis Frank (dfrank@sbu.edu)
Irenaeus/Juniper pic added 22 March 2004 by D. Frank
Last updated: 02 March 2006