That’s because Wess, the College’s William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies, wasn’t even sure the book would make it to publication. The idea for the book was hatched in 2019 just months before the pandemic shut down the world, making it difficult for the more than 60 authors who contributed to the book to conduct their research.

“There were people who were planning to work on it that following summer (2020) in France at a library, or somewhere else where they could only get those documents in one place, and the world was shut down,” says Wess, who along with Rhiannon Grant, a Quaker scholar from England, served as the book’s editors.

As the world slowed down, Wess wondered if the book would ever take off. “I think if it was up to me I would have given up, but having Rhiannon by my side was what pulled me through,” he says. “We could kind of push each other along.”

There was another dose of motivation for Wess. “When you believe in something and you believe that it's important to have it be out in the world, that gives you a bit more motivation to keep going,” he says.

Wess says The Quaker World is different from other books exploring the faith tradition. Wess and Rhiannon wanted the book to have a more global focus than other books. The editors also invited younger, sometimes non-established scholars, to contribute. “We wanted to lift up a new generation of Quaker scholars and hear stories and perspectives that often get missed or overlooked,” he says. “We also invited a number of non-Quakers to write so that we were getting unique perspectives that way as well.”

One of those non-Quakers offering a fresh perspective is Abigail Lawrence, a senior at New Garden Friends School who is dually enrolled at Guilford. Abigail, who was a student in Wess’s Quakerism class last year, wrote an essay on Quaker Sarah Mapps Douglas, a Black American educator, abolitionist, writer and public lecturer.

Wess was so impressed with Abigail’s essay that he dedicated a chapter to it in the book. “It's really illuminating,” he says. “It helps you to see what Quakers were dealing with in the 1800s through the lens of this woman's life. I feel super excited about some of those chapters like that one. They make the book more interesting.”

Rhiannon will speak at Guilford as one of the fall’s Judith Weller Harvey Quaker Scholars at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16. She will speak at the Moon Room in Dana Auditorium. 

Wess and Rhiannon will discuss The Quaker World at noon on Thursday, Nov. 17, in the Gilmer Room in Founders Hall.