Across the Line — Albert Payson Terhune

Albert Payson Terhune was not only universally famous for his stories of the collies of Sunnybank: as readers of his The Son of God know, he was also of a deeply religious mind. Some time before his death in February 1942, he made some rough notes for an article on a subject which had never ceased to concern him and which has absorbed the thoughts of human beings from time immemorial. As Rev. Dr. Sizoo remarks in the Foreword to this volume, “The human heart has always rebelled against the silence of death. Why should those whom we have loved and lost suddenly cease to be concerned about us and refuse to counsel and enhearten?...Are there any signals which flash back and forth? Do they know us? Can we speak with them? Are they concerned for us?”

Anice Terhune, the author's wife, offers an affirmative answer to these questions in the notes and comments that form the greater part of the present book. Mrs. Terhune was the author of The Bert Terhune I Knew (1943) as well as of many short stories, articles, and of three novels among which are The Eyes of the Village and The White Mouse. Pianist, organist, and composer, she has published many books of children's songs. She was born in Hampden, Massachusetts, of an old New Jersey family, a direct descendant of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence.