Lockhart Amerman

Lockhart Amerman (September 17, 1911 – November 1969) was an American minister and novelist.

Born in New York City in 1911 to William Libbey Amerman and Carrie Lockhart, he attended Collegiate School in New York City and then studied at Haverford College[1] He was editor of The Haverfordian (the campus literary magazine) in 1930.[2] He was associate editor of the 1931 Record (the senior class yearbook).[3] He played on the cricket team for four years at Haverford College.[4]

After graduating from Haverford College in 1931, he attended Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated in 1935, writing a thesis entitled "Markheim's Mirror: A Study of the Pauline Doctrine of Conscious".[5] After ordination as a Presbyterian minister, he served as Assistant Pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.[6] Amerman served as pastor of the Sewickley Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, from 1939 until 1968.[7]

Amerman was an active scholar as well as a minister. He published Where Saints Have Trod with the Gibson Press in 1943.[8] He published "The Menace of the Sunday School", in The Christian Century, Vol. LXI, No. 6 (February 9, 1944), p. 174 criticizing the simplistic theology often taught in Sunday schools. He also published a book of poems, Wheat for a Penny with Thistle House in 1945.[9] He published “The Pulpit Steps” in Theology Today in 1949.[10] He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity and was on the faculty of what was then known as the Western Theological Seminary (now the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary).[11]

Amerman published several well-received young adult mystery novels about the adventures of Jonathan Flower (a teenage son of an American spy). The first book, Guns in the Heather, was published in 1963.[12] This was followed by Cape Cod Casket in 1964.[13] Amerman finished the trilogy with The Sly One in 1966.[14] Guns in the Heather would go on to be made into a film by Disney (entitled The Secret of Boyne Castle) and released on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color in 1969.[15] It was released under the title of “Guns in the Heather” in Europe and in a Spanish translation as "El Secreto del Castillo."[16] It would later be re-broadcast as Spy-Busters on American television in 1978.[citation needed]

Personal life

He married Louise Landreth in Bristol, Pennsylvania in 1940; they had four children.[17] The family would often vacation at a cabin built by his father at Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks.

Death

Lockhart Amerman died in November 1969, at the age of 58.[18]

References

  1. ^ "The 1931 record" (PDF).
  2. ^ See The Haverfordian Vol. 50 (1930), available online here
  3. ^ See 1931 Record available online here
  4. ^ See 1931 Record, p. 26, available online here
  5. ^ See Catalogue of Princeton Theological Seminary 1934-1935, available online for his thesis, see the online catalog of the Wright Library at Princeton Theological Seminary, available online at: https://catalog.ptsem.edu/search/o=936470682 here
  6. ^ Princeton Alumni Weekly. Princeton University Press. 1937.
  7. ^ See Memorials in Stained Glass, p. 43 here
  8. ^ "Results for 'lockhart amerman' > 'Lockhart Amerman' [WorldCat.org]". worldcat.org. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  9. ^ "Results for 'lockhart amerman' > 'Lockhart Amerman' [WorldCat.org]". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  10. ^ Amerman, Lockhart (January 1949). "The Pulpit Steps". Theology Today. 5 (4): 533–542. doi:10.1177/004057364900500409. ISSN 0040-5736. S2CID 170667673.
  11. ^ Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church (1952). Annual Catalogue of the Western Theological Seminary. Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Library. Trustees of the Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church.
  12. ^ See review in Kirkus Reviews (October 9, 1963), available online here as well as a brief review in The Atlantic (1963), available online here
  13. ^ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  14. ^ "Digital Michigan Newspapers Collection". digmichnews.cmich.edu. November 9, 1966. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  15. ^ See description here
  16. ^ El secreto del castillo (1969) (in Spanish), retrieved 2022-06-28
  17. ^ "Phil Amerman obituary (1945 - 2017)". echovita.com. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  18. ^ "Lockhart Amerman". AncientFaces. Retrieved 2022-06-28.