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A Canticle for Leibowitz

First edition dust jacket Illustration by George Sottung
Author	Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Cover artist	George Sottung
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	J. B. Lippincott Company
Publication date	1960 (©1959)
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages	320
OCLC	1451434
Followed by	Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960. Based on three short stories Miller wrote for magazine publication, it is the only novel published by the author. Considered one of the classics of science fiction, it has never been out of print and has seen over 25 reprints and editions. Appealing to mainstream and genre critics and readers alike, it won the 1961 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel.

Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the Southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge against the day the outside world is again ready for it.

Inspired by the author's participation in the Allied bombing of the monastery at Monte Cassino during World War II, the novel is considered by literary critics a "masterpiece". It has been compared favorably with the works of Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Walker Percy, and its themes of religion, recurrence, and church versus state have generated a significant body of scholarly research.

Contents 1 Publication history 1.1 Development 1.2 Publication 1.3 Sequel 2 Plot summary 2.1 Background 2.2 "Fiat Homo" (Let There Be Man) 2.3 "Fiat Lux" (Let There Be Light) 2.4 "Fiat Voluntas Tua" (Thy Will Be Done) 3 Characters in A Canticle for Leibowitz 3.1 "Fiat Homo" 3.2 "Fiat Lux" 3.3 "Fiat Voluntas Tua" 4 Major themes 5 Literary significance and reception 6 Adaptations 7 Latin phrases in the text 8 References 8.1 Footnotes and citations 8.2 Sources 9 External links

Walter Miller was a prolific writer of science fiction short stories, and by 1955 he had published over 30 stories in such magazines as Astounding Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, and Fantastic Adventures.^[1] Some of the stories dealt with themes of loss of scientific knowledge, its preservation through oral transmission, and the guardianship of archives by priests.^[2] These motifs, combined with the growing subgenre of the “post-disaster” story and Miller’s own World War II experiences, set the stage for the short story that would become the opening section of A Canticle for Leibowitz.^[3]

During World War II, Miller served as part of a bomber crew that participated in the destruction of the ancient Roman Catholic monastery at Monte Cassino (Italy) founded by St. Benedict in the 6th century. This experience impressed him enough to write, a decade later, the short story "A Canticle for Leibowitz" about an order of monks whose abbey springs from the destroyed world around it.^[4][5] The story, which would evolve into the first part of the novel ("Fiat Homo"), was published in the April 1955 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Although not originally intended as a serialization, the saga continued in "And the Light is Risen", which was published in August 1956 (also in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction); this work would later grow into "Fiat Lux". It was while writing the third "novelette", "The Last Canticle", for magazine publication the following year (February) that Miller realized he was really completing a novel: "Only after I had written the first two and was working on the third did it dawn on me that this isn't three novelettes, it's a novel. And I converted it."^[5]

For the novelization Miller did not simply colligate the three short stories. A significant revision process — involving title and character name changes, addition of Latin text, and new characters and changes in the natures and prominence of existing characters — occurred; these revisions result in significant impacts on and interpretations of the religious and recurrence themes of the story. For example, the already strong recurrence motif is further enhanced by the name change of the abbot of the first part from "Father Juan" to "Abbot Arkos". The cycle/recurrence theme is highlighted by ensuring that the name of the first abbot encountered begins with the first letter of the Roman alphabet and the last abbot's name (Zerchi) begins with the last letter.^[6] This echoes the alpha and omega nature of the Hebrew letters sadhe and lamedh the Wandering Jew inscribes on the rock for Brother Francis in the novel's beginning.^[7] Miller also expanded scenes, increasing their importance: for instance, the initial encounter between Brother Francis and Abbot Arkos in "Fiat Homo" grew from a brief, two-page scene in the short story to a substantial eight-page treatment clearly showing an Arkos possessed of doubts and uncertainty (unlike the dogmatism of Father Juan).^[6]

The novel was published by J.B. Lippincott as a hardcover in 1960 (although the copyright is 1959), and demand for the book was enough to prompt two reprints within the first year.^[8] In 1961 it was awarded the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novel by the The World Science Fiction Convention.^[1] Since then A Canticle for Leibowitz has had new editions and reprints issued in paperback and hardcover more than 40 times, and has never been out of print. It regularly appears on "best of" lists and has been recognized three times with Locus Poll Awards for best all-time science fiction novel.^[5][1]

Main article: Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman

Toward the end of his life, Miller wrote another installment of the Abbey of Saint Leibowitz saga, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. A full-length novel (455 pages) significantly longer than its predecessor, it is set in AD 3254, seventy years after the events of "Fiat Lux" but before "Fiat Voluntas Tua"; it is thus, strictly speaking, a midquel to A Canticle for Leibowitz. Suffering from writer's block and fearful the new work would go unfinished, Miller arranged with author Terry Bisson to complete the work. According to Bisson, all he did was go in and tie up the loose ends Miller had left.^[9] The novel tells the story of Brother Blacktooth St. George of the Leibowitzan abbey who, unlike Brother Francis, wants to be released from his holy vows and leave the Abbey. In addition to recounting his travels as Cardinal Brownpony's personal secretary, the book describes the political situation in the 33rd century as Church and empire (Texark) vie for power. Miller died before the novel's publication.^[9]

Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman has been called "Walter Miller's other novel." Reviewer Steven H. Silver points out that this ". . . is not to say that Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman does not deserve to be read. It is a fantastic novel, only suffering in comparison to Miller's earlier work."^[10]

A Canticle for Leibowitz opens 600 years after 20th Century civilization is destroyed by a global nuclear war, known as the "Flame Deluge". The text reveals that as a result of the war there was a violent backlash against the culture of advanced knowledge and technology that had led to the development of nuclear weapons. During this backlash, called the "Simplification," anyone of learning, and eventually anyone who could even read, was likely to be killed by rampaging mobs. Illiteracy became almost universal, and books were destroyed en masse.

Isaac Edward Leibowitz had been a Jewish electrical engineer working for the United States military. Surviving the war, he converted to Roman Catholicism and founds a monastic order, the "Albertian Order of Leibowitz", dedicated to preserving knowledge by hiding books, smuggling them to safety (booklegging), memorizing, and copying them. The Order's abbey is located in the American southwestern desert, near the military base where Leibowitz had worked before the war, on an old road that was "a portion of the shortest route from the Great Salt Lake to Old El Paso." Leibowitz was eventually betrayed and martyred. Later beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, he became a candidate for sainthood.

Centuries after his death, the Abbey is still preserving the "memorabilia", the collected writings that have survived the Flame Deluge and the Simplification, in the hope that they will help future generations reclaim forgotten science.

The story is structured in three parts titled: "Fiat Homo", "Fiat Lux", and "Fiat Voluntas Tua". The parts are separated by periods of six centuries each.

In the 26th century, Brother Francis Gerard of Utah, a novice training to become a monk, is sent out from the Abbey of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz on a Lenten vigil of "penance, solitude, and silence" in the desert. During this "vocational vigil", Francis encounters a cantankerous, Hebrew-speaking wanderer, who points out a rock that might help him complete the construction of his shelter. In moving the rock, Francis discovers the entrance to an ancient fallout shelter containing "relics", such as handwritten notes on crumbling memo pads bearing cryptic texts like "pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels–bring home for Emma". Brother Francis soon realizes that these notes appear to have been written by his order's founder, the Blessed Leibowitz.

The discovery of the ancient documents causes an uproar at the monastery, as the other monks see the traveler as a miraculous sign (or possibly even Leibowitz himself). Abbot Arkos, the head of the monastery, worries that the discovery of so many potentially holy relics in such a short period may cause delays in Leibowitz's canonization process. To downplay the significance of the discovery and prevent problematic sensationalism, he banishes Francis back to the desert to complete his vigil; subsequently Francis's novice status is extended an additional seven years as he regularly refuses to unequivocally assert the discovery anything but miraculous in nature. Francis is not allowed to take his vows until New Rome approves the validity of the relics and begins formally advancing the case for Leibowitz's sainthood.

Many years later the Abbey is visited by Monsignors Aguerra (God's Advocate) and Flaught (the Devil's Advocate), the Church's investigators in the case for Leibowitz's sainthood. Eventually, at least 15 years after the discovery of the shelter, Leibowitz is canonized, based partly on the evidence Francis discovered in the shelter. Brother Francis is sent to New Rome (formerly St. Louis) to represent the Order at the canonization Mass. He takes with him the documents found in the shelter and an illumination of one of the documents he has spent years working on. The illumination is a gift to the Pope.

En route, he is robbed and his illumination stolen. Francis completes the journey to New Rome and is granted an audience with the Pope. The Pope comforts Francis by telling him that the loss of the illumination was to preserve the original; therefore, the years he spent working on it were not in vain. Given money to buy back the illumination from the bandits who robbed him, Francis is murdered during his return trip to the Abbey by the same men. The wanderer who pointed out the rock discovers and buries Francis's body, and arranges to have it returned to the Abbey for interment.

In 3174, the Albertian Order of St. Leibowitz is still preserving the half-understood knowledge from before the Flame Deluge and the subsequent Age of Simplification. The new Dark Age is ending, however, and a new Renaissance is beginning. Thon Taddeo Pfardentrott, a highly regarded secular scholar, is sent by his cousin King Hannegan of Texarkana to the Abbey. Thon Taddeo, frequently compared to Albert Einstein, is interested in the Order's preserved collection of Memorabilia.

At the Abbey, Brother Kornhoer, a talented engineer, has just finished work on a "generator of electrical essences", a tread-mill powered electrical generator that powers an arc lamp. He gives credit for the generator to work done by Thon Taddeo. After arriving at the monastery, Thon Taddeo, by studying the Memorabilia, has made several major "discoveries", and asks the abbot to allow the Memorabilia to be removed to Texarkana. The Abbot Dom Paulo refuses, stating he can continue his research at the Abbey. Before departing, the Thon comments that it could take decades to finish analyzing the Memorabilia.

Meanwhile, Hannegan makes an alliance with the kingdom of Laredo and the neighboring, relatively civilized city-states against the threat of attack from the nomadic warriors. Hannegan, however, is manipulating the regional politics to effectively neutralize all of his enemies, leaving him in control of the entire region. Monsignor Apollo, the papal nuncio to Hannegan's court, sends word to New Rome that Hannegan intends to attack the empire of Denver next, and that he intends to use the Abbey as a base of operations from which to conduct the campaign. For his actions, Apollo is executed, and Hannegan declares loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church to be punishable by death. The Church excommunicates Hannegan.

It is the year 3781, and mankind has nuclear energy and weapons again, as well as starships and extra-solar colonies. Two world superpowers, the Asian Coalition and the Atlantic Confederacy, have been embroiled in a cold war for 50 years. The Leibowitzan Order's mission of preserving the Memorabilia has expanded to the preservation of all knowledge.

This final segment begins with a press conference and reporters are questioning the defense minister of the Atlantic Confederacy about abnormally high levels of radiation on the "Northwest coast". They also ask about recent rumors that both sides are assembling nuclear weapons in space. The minister denies everything. At the Abbey, Dom Jethras Zerchi, the current abbot, is recommending to the Church authorities in New Rome that the Church reactivate the Quo Peregrinatur Grex ("Whither Wanders the Flock") plans involving "certain vehicles", contingency plans the Church has had since 3756. Soon a "nuclear incident" occurs in the Asian Coalition city of Itu Wan: an underground nuclear explosion has destroyed the city, and the Atlantic Confederacy counters by firing a "warning shot" over the South Pacific.

New Rome tells Zerchi to proceed with Quo Peregrinatur and plan for departure within three days. He appoints Brother Joshua as mission leader, telling him that this is an emergency plan for perpetuating the Church on the colony planets in the event of a nuclear war on Earth. The Order's Memorabilia will also accompany the mission. That night the Atlantic Confederacy launches an assault against Asian Coalition space platforms. The Asian Coalition responds by using a nuclear weapon against the Confederacy capital city of Texarkana. A ten-day cease-fire is issued by the World Court. Brother Joshua and the space-trained monks and priests depart on a secret, chartered flight for New Rome, hoping to leave Earth on the starship before the cease-fire ends.

The Abbey offers shelter to people from the regions affected by fallout from the nuclear attack. It is soon overrun by refugees, many who are dying of radiation poisoning. Zerchi allows a Green Star (government emergency response agency) hospital to set up at the Abbey, provided they do not advise anyone to go to a "mercy camp" (euthanasia center). A battle of wills between Zerchi and the Green Star Doctor Cors over the morality of euthanasia ensues: Zerchi attempts to persuade radiation victims to follow Church teachings against euthanasia while Cors offer it as an alternative. Zerchi revokes permission for the Green Star camp to operate from the monastery as a result.

The ten-day cease-fire ends and full-scale nuclear war starts soon after. Zerchi is hearing the confession of a local bi-cephalic woman, Mrs. Grales, when a nuclear explosion occurs near the Abbey. He is pinned under several tons of rock from the walls of the Abbey. The explosion has opened up the monastery's ancient crypts, and bones are scattered among the rocks. Before dying, Zerchi is able to work loose a nearby skull with an arrow's shaft protruding from its forehead.

Joshua and the Quo Peregrinatur crew launch as the nuclear explosions begin. Joshua, the last crew member to board the starship, knocks the dirt from his sandals, murmuring "Sic transit mundus" ("Thus passes the world"). As a coda, there is a final vignette depicting the ecological aspects of the final human war: seabirds and fish succumb to the poisonous fallout, and a shark evades death only through moving to particularly deep water, where, it is noted, it was particularly hungry that season.

• Brother Francis — Young man originally from Utah who is a novice in the Albertian Order of Leibowitz.
• Wanderer — Traveler who encounters Brother Francis during his Lenten vigil.
• Abbot Arkos — Religious and administrative leader of the Leibowitz Order's abbey in the 26th century.
• Monsignor Aguerra — God's Advocate for the Leibowitz canonization application.
• Monsignor Flaught — Devil's Advocate for the Leibowitz canonization application.
• The Pope — Pope of the surviving Roman Catholic Church; New Rome is located on the site of St. Louis, Missouri.

• Thon Taddeo Pfardentrott — Highly regarded scholar from the city-state of Texarkana; relative of King Hannegan ("Thon" is an academic honorific or title).
• King Hannegan — Ruler of the rapidly rising city-state of Texarkana.
• Dom Paulo — Abbot of the Leibowitz Order's abbey in the 32nd century.
• Brother Kornhoer — Leibowitzan monk with talents for science and engineering.
• Monsignor Apollo — Papal nuncio to Hannegan's court in Texarkana.
• Benjamin Eleazar — Itinerant Jew who claims to have met Brother Francis centuries before.
• The Poet — A one-eyed vagrant who lives at the abby. He informs Dom Paulo of the Thon's political agenda.

• Dom Jethras Zerchi— Abbot of the Leibowitz Order's abbey in the 39th century.
• Brother Joshua — Monk of the Leibowitz Order, technician and former astronaut.
• Benjamin — Itinerant Jew.
• Doctor Cors — Medico with the Atlantic Confederacy's emergency response agency Green Star.
• Mrs. Grales/Rachel — Bi-cephalic woman who frequents the Abbey, selling tomatoes.

Scholars and critics have noted the theme of cyclic history or recurrence in Miller's works, epitomized in A Canticle for Leibowitz. David Seed, in his book American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film (1992), in discussing the treatment of nuclear holocaust in science fiction, states, "it was left to Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz to show recurrence taking place in a narrative spanning centuries."^[11] David N. Samuelson, whose 1969 doctoral dissertation on Canticle is considered the "best overall discussion of the book", calls the "cyclical theme of technological progress and regress . . . the foundation-stone on which A Canticle for Leibowitz is built."^[5][12]

The third part, "Fiat Voluntas Tua", includes a debate between future Church and state stances on euthanasia, a thematic issue representative of the larger conflict between Church and state.^[13] Literary critic Edward Ducharme claimed that "Miller's narrative continually returns to the conflicts between the scientist's search for truth and the state's power."^[14] Walter Miller, himself mentally ill for years, committed suicide several decades after publication of his masterpiece. Just as the Order of Leibowitz in the book could not prevent the death of civilization on earth, the enormous success of the book could not prevent Miller's own suicide.^[9] And yet in the book the Order lives on, giving meaning and value to humanity even as it questions its own behavior, just as the book itself lives on after Walter Miller's tragic death — asking similar questions of us all. As Duncan Lawie noted, the book has become its own metaphor.^[15]

Initial response to the novel was mixed, but included reviews from newspapers and magazines normally inattentive to science fiction. A Canticle for Leibowitz was reviewed in such notable publications as Time, The New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, and The Spectator.^[16] While the The New Yorker was negative — calling Miller a "dull, ashy writer guilty of heavy-weight irony"^[17] — The Spectator’s was mixed. Also unimpressed, Time said, "Miller proves himself chillingly effective at communicating a kind of post-human lunar landscape of disaster," but dubbed it intellectually lightweight.^[18] The New York Times Book Review, however, was solid in its praise: Martin Levin hailed A Canticle for Leibowitz as an "ingenious fantasy".^[19] The Chicago Tribune, gave the book unusual exposure outside the genre in a front page review in the Chicago Tribune Magazine of Books, reviewer Edmund Fuller calling the book "an extraordinary novel".^[20]

Sales of the hardcover publication were significant enough to justify two additional reprints of the book within the first year, and the novel was recognized with a Hugo Award by science fiction and fantasy fans as the best science fiction novel of 1960.^[1]

In the years since, praise for the work has been consistently high. It is considered a "science-fiction classic . . . [and] is arguably the best novel written about nuclear apocalypse, surpassing more popularly known books like On the Beach".^[21] A Canticle for Leibowitz has also generated a significant body of literary criticism, including numerous literature journal articles, books and college courses.^[22] Acknowledging its serialization roots, literary critic David N. Samuelson writes that A Canticle for Leibowitz "may be the one universally acknowledged literary masterpiece to emerge from magazine SF."^[23] Fellow critic David Cowart places the novel in the realm of works by Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Walker Percy, stating it "stands for many readers as the best novel ever written in the genre."^[24] Percy, a National Book Award recipient, declared Canticle "a mystery: it's as if everything came together by some felicitous chance, then fell apart into normal negative entropy. I'm as mystified as ever and hold Canticle in even higher esteem."^[25] Scholars and critics have explored the many themes encompassed in the novel, frequently focusing on its motifs of religion, recurrence, and church versus state.^[26]

A 15-part serial of the novel was adapted for radio by John Reed and broadcast in 1981 by National Public Radio (NPR). Directed by Karl Schmidt, it was produced by Carl Schmidt and Marv Nunn. Carol Collins narrated the production.^[27]

For more details on this topic, see List of Latin Phrases in A Canticle for Leibowitz.

Latin phrases populate much of the novel, emphasizing its religious themes. Susan Olsen writes that Miller is not including the Latin phrases just to "add dignity" to the work, but is consonant with the tradition of Judeo-Christian writings. All are related to Roman Catholic Church practices, rituals and official communications, and not all are accompanied by English translations.^[28] A list organized in the same tripartite structure of the novel has been separated out to its own article.

• A Canticle for Leibowitz publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

v • d • e Works by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Novels:	A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960) · Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (1997)
Novelettes:	"The Darfsteller" (1955)
Short Stories:	"Anybody Else Like Me?" (1952) · "The Big Hunger" (1952) · "Big Joe and the Nth Generation" (1952) · "Bitter Victory" (1952) · "Blood Bank" (1952) · "Cold Awakening" (1952) · "Command Performance" (1952) · "Conditionally Human" · "Crucifixus Etiam" (1953) · "Dark Benediction" (1951) · "Death of a Spaceman" (1954) · "Dumb Waiter" (1952) · "The First Canticle" (1955) · "Gravesong" (1952) · "The Hoofer" (1955) · "I, Dreamer" (1953) · "I Made You" (1954) · "Izzard and the Membrane" (1951) · "Let My People Go" (1952) · "The Lineman" (1957) · "The Little Creeps" (1951) · "Memento Homo" (1954) · "No Moon for Me" (1952) · "The Reluctant Traitor" (1952) · "Secret of the Death Dome" (1951) · "Six and Ten Are Johnny" (1952) · "The Song of Marya" (1957) · "The Song of Vorhu" (1951) · "The Soul-Empty Ones" (1951) · "The Sower Does Not Reap" (1953) · "The Space Witch" (1951) · "The Ties that Bind" (1954) · "The View from the Stars" · "The Will" (1954) · "The Yokel" (1953) · "Vengeance for Nikolai" (1957) · "Way of a Rebel" (1954) · "Wolf Pack" (1953) · "You Triflin' Skunk!" (1955) ·