Iloene Flower Brennan

J. Howard: a Prophet of Our Times Iloene Flower Brennan

J. Howard: A Prophet of Our Times tells in two parts the lifestyle and experiences of J. Howard Flower, a lifelong resident of Hartland Four Corners, Vermont. Part I details the biography of the man; Part II portrays the prophetic aspects of his lifestyle and experiences. Born in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, Howard lived far in advance of the times. Time Herself bears this out. He loved freedom in all its aspects and abhorred conventionality in the same manner. A social reformer, he became a vegetarian at an early age, took care of his health in natural ways, wore his hair long, dressed in radical fashions. As a young man he scoffed at formal titles and marriage. In his view there was no such thing as inequality between the sexes. Long before it was accepted practice, and in defiance of the law, he was home schooling his children. Early on he cast formal religion out the window. Disagreeing vehemently with the need for war, disagreeing in the same way with the two major political parties, he was not afraid to make his positions known. We have here an individual destined to present a foreshadowing of social change.