Hi!
Well, I just finished reading Marley Cole's "Jehovah's Witnesses - The New World Society" book from 1955. I'll provide a few quotes to introduce it in case you aren't familiar with the book.
Ray Franz in Crisis of Conscience, p74, 2004 hc edition:
Cole wrote the book as if he were a non-Witness writing an objective account. The idea was that by having the book published by an outside publishing firm it might reach persons who normally would not take Society literature. Thus it was a form of public relations tactic.
The Watchtower, August 15, 1955, p511:
A new book by this name has been published by Vantage Press of New York city. Written in newsy reporter style by Marley Cole, it presents for the first time in book form authentic information on the history, activities and doctrinal views of Jehovah's witnesses. Much of the material was gathered by personal interviews with witnesses, some of them being officials of the Society. Frequently in the news is something about the religion of President Eisenhower's parents. This book gives the facts often overlooked or concealed, with documentary proof that they were Jehovah's witnesses for many years. You will be interested in reading this 229-page book and seeing its many fine photographs. It is $2.95 a copy, and may be had at your local bookstore or from the Watchtower Society, 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn 1, N. Y.
I quote the entire plug to draw attention to the fact that it could be ordered through the Society (you could even order it at your KH's literature counter), something that is extremely rare for non-WT-published books (MacMillan's "Faith on the March" is the only other one I can think of, but it seems like there might have been one or two others).
Anyways, I just finished reading this book and wanted to see if anyone was interested in discussing it. It seemed like a really poor attempt at producing what was supposed to look like an outsider's view to me. It read exactly like all the Society literature. In fact, I can't imagine anyone reading it without realizing that the author was a Witness.
I did think it was very interesting that it used quotes from a very early draft of the NWT. Being from 1955, the version it quotes dramatically predates that 1961 version that appeared in the Green Cover edition (with dinosaur). For example, Matthew 24:14 is quoted as, "And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all nations, and then the accomplished end will come", while the dinosaur edition has the text that we're all familiar with.
I did like all the pictures. It did have some pictures of packed stadiums that I've already seen so many of, but it also had pictures of meetings and Bible studies from the mid-1950s, also a pic of Gilead when it was new. I really dig the picture of the two brothers in the KH library where one of them is pointing at the 1879-1883 WT bound volumes. Maybe he's really into pyramids or something.
Something potentially interesting about the book is that it contains a chapter and appendix that were later combined and expanded into a book called "Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News", which is itself a desirable collectable today. (The Cole book is likewise considered desirable; I've seen prices as high as US$150 quoted, but it can be had for much less. I got my copy as part of a lot of old literature that also included a copy of Divine Purpose and a copy of the Kingdom Interlinear, plus half a dozen Rutherford Rainbow books and a few of the larger 1970s books--I think the whole lot was thirty bucks, at most.)
I'll post more thoughts on the book later (got a sick two-year-old to take care of at the moment), but wanted to see if anyone else had read it and had any thoughts on it. Here is the cover:
Peace,
Heather.