The years from approximately 1924 to 1955, in which the evolving manuscript of the Urantia revelation was shared with a small group in Chicago called the Forum, is an intriguing period in the history of the Urantia Book and its readership. Only one source of extensive and detailed information about this period has come to light: the diaries and letters of bestselling author Harold M. Sherman and his wife Martha. During their stay in Chicago, from 1942 to 1947, the Shermans recorded what was said and done at every Forum meeting they attended. They also recorded their conversations with their Forum friends outside Forum meetings. Their diligent documenting resulted in close to two thousand pages of eyewitness accounts which portray Forum life with unmatched vividness and immediacy.
What makes their story especially piquant is that Harold was a controversial figure. Outspokenly critical of some of the plans of the Forum leaders, he was accused by the main leader, Dr. William S. Sadler, of disrupting the superhumanly authorized running of the Forum. Sadler allowed the Shermans to continue to attend Forum meetings, but they became estranged from most of their fellow Forumites. Feeling unjustly blamed, the Shermans wrote sharp, critical reports of the ensuing Forum activities, which contrast with the vague, rosy accounts given decades later by non-Forumites.
In this and successive volumes of The Urantia Diaries of Harold and Martha Sherman, we present the Shermans' Urantia-related experiences, as reported by themselves in their letters and diaries.
This volume contains the correspondence Sherman had with Sadler and two other notable Forumites in 1941 and early 1942, before the Shermans arrived in Chicago in May 1942 and began attending the Forum. One of these was Sherman's friend Sir Hubert Wilkins, the famous Australian polar explorer who joined the Forum shortly after the Shermans did. The other was the mysterious detective Harry J. Loose, an old acquaintance with whom Sherman reconnected in February 1941 and formed a fateful bond. Through letters and in person Loose introduced the Shermans to the Urantia revelation and thrilled Harold with the assurance that he was to play a leading role in its presentation to the world.
Harry Loose to Harold Sherman, February 4, 1941: Remember to watch for a tremendous book [the Book of Urantia] which will be published in about two years. It has been now 35 years in the building. It is not mine but I had something to do with it. You will recognize it when it appears. It will be world shocking. It will clarify so very much that is cloudy in our present-day Bible. It is a true spiritual revelation to this age written by intelligences that have never been earthbound and who have to do with the governing of this tiny earth in this very limited universe. Please believe every astonishing word. It is the TRUTH. I KNOW. . . .
Harold Sherman to William Sadler, October 12, 1941: This Story of our First Life Planet, Urantia, possesses great dramatic possibilities when adapted to radio, stage and screen. There are perhaps 20 to 30 great dramas in it, maybe more. And these must be culled out and developed in direct relation to the spiritual value and need represented by the phase of the book dramatized. . . . IF I am correct in my belief that my life has been lived to enable me to serve your Group as the DRAMATIST, then it will be my task, in association with a directorial board from your Group, to take complete charge and have all business offers referred to me. . . . I am not meaning to suggest that any ONE MAN is capable of standing up under such a mission of service. But, given the support of higher intelligences, fleshed and unfleshed, he may draw the power and the wisdom to see it through. . . .
Saskia Praamsma and Matthew Block are longtime Urantia Book readers who produce and distribute Urantia-related works via their company, Square Circles Publishing, and their websites: squarecircles.com, squarecirclespublishing.com, and urantiabooksources.com.
