Newell Dwight Hillis

A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self-culture and Character (Dodo Press) Newell Dwight Hillis

Newell Dwight Hillis (1858-1929) was a Congregationalist minister, writer, and philosopher from Brooklyn. He served as pastor of historic Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, and he oversaw the completion of the last major renovaton of the church. As a minister in a major metropolis, Hillis railed against immorality, and he told reporters in 1900 that "a common whipping post might be very wholesome for New York today". He was upset over what he deemed the immoral behaviour found in Broadway plays, in particular the play Sapho, which featured English actress Olga Nethersole in the role of Fanny. Hillis also authored a book containing World War I German atrocity stories. Based upon his belief in the veracity of the reports of alleged German inhumanity, he called for the sterilization of Germans. His works include: A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self- Culture and Character (1896), Foretokens of Immortality: Studies "for the Hour When the Immortal Hope Burns Low in the Heart" (1897) and How the Inner Light Failed: A Study of the Atrophy of the Spiritual Sense (1898).