Order books from

When ordering multiple copies for an appearance by Bill, phone either Susan Cash, marketing manager at Kent State U. Press:  330.672.8097 or Atlas Books (partner to Kent State U. Press):  419.281.1802

Praise for PURE HEART:

“Bill Quigley’s instinctive narrative voice presents the compelling story of Benjamin Dorr, minister of the landmark Christ Church, and his soldier son, as each in his own way navigates the controversies swirling through a divided Civil War Philadelphia.  Readers will be rewarded again and again as they find themselves pulled into this ground-level history told by a master biographer.”

—Ronald C. White Jr., author of American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant and A. Lincoln: A Biography.

“In the Civil War publishing field, which is crowded with first-hand memories, William Quigley's stands out for the deep humanity he reveals in the lives of Rev. Benjamin Dorr and his son, Captain William White Dorr.  Quigley's skill in recapturing the story of wartime Philadelphia is matched by his own deep humanity in telling this powerful and moving story.  The book is a treasure.”

- Mark A. Noll, author of The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

“William Quigley has recovered an unknown and riveting story of the Civil War era. Christ Church in Philadelphia was a microcosm of the nation, for its members were deeply divided over slavery.  But the Reverend Benjamin Dorr was able to keep his church intact without sacrificing his antislavery principles.  Brilliantly conceived, exhaustively researched, and elegantly written, it is a major contribution to religion and the Civil War era. ”

—John Stauffer, author of The Black Hearts of Men, GIANTS, and Picturing Frederick Douglass