Samford Presents Pollock Award To Solzhenitsyn Biographer

Samford’s Beeson Divinity School presented its annual John C. Pollock Award for Christian Biography to Joseph Pearce, writer-in-residence at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Mich., for his book Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile.

Pearce’s book on the Russian literary giant, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, was published by Baker Books in 2001.

Of the work, reviewer Edward E. Erickson said, “Joseph Pearce is best on what matters most about Solzhenitsyn: the centrality of the author’s faith.” Ericson is an English professor at Calvin College in Michigan and himself author of a book on Solzhenitsyn.

Another reviewer, author David Aikman, said, “[Pearce] has grasped with great insight the spiritual core of Solzhenitsyn’s achievement as a writer, and indeed as a prophet to Russia and the world.”

Beeson began presenting the Pollock Award in 2001. It is named for a British author of more than 30 books on religion, the majority of them biographies of Christian leaders.

This year’s recipient, Pearce, has written eight books on such literary figures as J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, Oscar Wilde and others. He also teaches literature and lyric poetry at Ave Maria College.

Pollock, whose work inspired the Samford award, attended this year’s award ceremony May 23. The author, now 78 and a resident of Devonshire, England, was at Samford to receive an honorary doctor of letters degree during commencement May 25.