PUBLISHING THE DIVINE PRINCIPLE BOOK

We carried the printed pages of the new Divine Principle book to San Francisco. We still had to have the book bound. This meant finding a book binder to do the job.

In order to bind the book, the pages had to be folded and gathered in the what is known in the bindery trade as books consisting of 32 pages. They are then assembled with the other books to make up your volume which have to be stitched and a back and cover put on them. In those days much of the work was done by hand. We decided to save money by folding and gathering the books ourselves we could save money. For the folding we rented a folding machine. We gathered the books also. This consists of putting the pages in sequence on tables and walking around picking them up until you have gathered a book, 32 pages, you then stacked it and started around again. The binder then sews and binds the books into a volume.

After the books were bound, we found there were many typographical errors. We had carefully gone over the final copy checking for errors. With the exception of a few nearly imperceptible errors, we had corrected the errors in the camera copy. This was done by pasting the corrections over the errors with rubber cement. In camera ready copy this works well, any lines from the edges can be opaqued out in the negative. The thin strips that had been used, sometimes correcting just a word.

The printer we chose in Eugene, although a professional, was beginning his own business and had his small operation set up in the garage of his home. We had seen some of his work and it was very good. It turned out that he was sloppy in handling our camera copy before photographing it to make the offset plates. Many of the corrections came off at his print shop causing many of the corrected errors to appear in the finished book. Any spare time we had in the center, was spent correcting the new books with pen and in some cases pasting in new printed paragraphs, in 500 bound copies. We spent hours and hours making the corrections by hand. After our next printing, these first copies were sent to Korea where members working on the English were happy to have them.

Miss Kim had already started on a revised version of the Divine Principle, always trying to make the book a little clearer and more professional. This time she had help from a professional writer we had met, a former professor at the University of California Berkeley.

He liked us, and worked with George Norton at the hospital. He was not interested in the Divine Principle, however enjoyed giving Miss Kim advice and technical help in making the writing more professionally. In turn we were to print a book for him, a book that never materialized. It must be understood, that Miss Kim wrote a number of books, at this stage she still had problems expressing herself fully in English. Even in later years she depended on assistants to help in writing making sure she was coming across as she wanted, and she listened to suggestions.

In recent years all this has been replaced by the word processor makes such a project very simple--as an example the what you are reading now. For us incorrigible "do-it-yourselfers", some things never change. When Miss Kim was leaving to go to Korea for the last time, I asked her if she had used a word processor. She said, that people had shown them to her, but they were very complicated for her to learn, but she could see the advantages. She said she didn't write so much any more, but if the word processor and computer would have been so accessible ten years earlier she would have learned to use one. Knowing her she would have undoubtedly mastered it quickly.

OUR DO-IT-YOURSELF PRINTING JOB

Being incorrigible "do-it-yourselfers" of the first order, and being burned by the printer in Oregon, we decided to do this printing job ourselves. We bought an A B Dick table top offset printing machine, and a copier to make the offset plates. I printed the next version of the Divine Principle in my bedroom. We had printed pages stacked everywhere and the aluminum offset plates hanging on clothes lines in the hall.

We again did the folding and "gathering" ourselves. We rented a folding machine and folded the pages then gathered them. We used the printing machine for a number of years, printing news letters and such. The last I heard of the printing machine, it was in some storage room at publications in New York, it has probably long since been put into a trash dumpster by someone cleaning out the room. It was impossible to envision on what scale printing would be done 30 years later in the Unification Church and its enterprises. This was brought home vividly to me when I was given a tour the Washington Times building, by my son Lloyd, who worked there as a cameraman. He was a toddler when we moved to the center at 410 Cole Street, and now with his wife Yuko, has blessed us with four grandchildren..

Our second printing of the Divine Principle came out much better than the first. I guess we had learned something by this time. There was later a third edition which while we were at 1309 Masonic. We had it printed by a book manufacturer in either Tennessee or Kentucky. This one we did nothing but supply the copy.

THE FIRST SONG BOOK

At some point in our printing process at 410 Cole Street we decided to make a song book and it was made up of Hymns from the Christian church. Miss Kim and I set in her bedroom and picked out songs from the Army Navy Hymnal. I cut the pages out so they could be used for making the song book. This may have been illegal, but the books were just for our own use at the center. Some years later the church got into copyright problems because some members did this with a large red song book. They ended up having to recall them and destroy them.

Our number one song in the book was the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Miss Kim translated some of the Korean holy songs and we printed them in the book. We also included in the book many popular old American hymns such as Bringing in the Sheaves and Amazing Grace. It also included the old standby fundamentalist hymn "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood." I asked her why do we put that in the book, I had never even heard it sung while I was a member of the Methodist Church. She said that Reverend Moon liked the hymn and we included it in the book.

It was sometime during this period that she translated several of the holy songs, which she had in a small book that had been printed in Korea. We even made an attempt, to sing some of them in Korean, which was a disaster. Much later Patty sang one of the Korean songs in Korean for Reverend Moon. He about fell off of his chair from laughter. It is hard to know how she sounded in Korean or even what she might have said. In later years the Holy Songs were published in a book in Washington D.C.

THE NEW AGE FRONTIERS

While still in Oregon, we started to publish a monthly newsletter, it was a simple affair, written by Miss Kim and then copied on a copier. After moving to San Francisco we curtailed the newsletter for awhile. We were all living together and their was little need for a news letter.

After printing the book, we now had an offset printing machine, by now with Colonel Pak in Washington D.C., and David Kim in Portland we were beginning to get members scattered around the country. In the later part of 1962 we began to produce a larger monthly newsletter, and decided on the name, The New Age Frontiers. Miss Kim would type it up on disposable paper offset plates and we would print it and mail it to members. At one point as people scattered through out the country, we produced the New Age Frontiers twice a month.

The New Age Frontiers became an important source of communication and inspiration to our members. It contained articles written by Miss Kim and members in addition to testimonies by new members. At one time Miss Kim did an extensive series of articles on comparative religions, which I am sure was the basis for her later books. It also would contain reports of how the members were doing in their new locations, this was always an encouragement to other members. We sometimes strained to find something to submit to the newsletter, but would make up for the lack of success by writing some bologna to fool the other members. This was later to be developed into a fine art by later members in the Unification Church when making reports of their activities.

When someone new joined, they had to immediately write their testimonial letters. This was a must for new members. This early newsletter was very personal and contained letters about personal experiences and thoughts. It also had a great vitality because you knew the people who were telling their stories. We also went through a period where people were putting in their spiritual experiences and messages they received from the spirit world, some good, some irrelevant.

I think the vitality was somewhat lost in later editions after it became less personal and more just reporting the news. The newsletter and later the New Age Frontiers was published for some years. In reviewing the news letter, I find many of the articles relevant 30 years later. There are other letters and testimonies that have historical significance. There are also many names that are only memories, people that have long ago left the scene. It must be remembered, there was no large body of printed information as a source of inspiration. There were no speeches by Father that gave clear direction. There were no books on tradition. There was no Unification News or Today’s World. By today’s standard it was quite primitive, however it served us well in those beginning years. I have one of two complete sets of over 500 pages legal size pages in existence and am working to get it all scanned, and made available.