Contact: Johanna Inwood, 719-264-5696

COLORADO SPRINGS, May 16, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Image Books, an imprint of Crown Publishing, announced plans today for a biography of New Yorker Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009). A pastor, priest, writer, political advisor, and defender of the Church, Neuhaus was an influential figure in American public life from the Civil Rights era to the War on Terror. His writings, activism and connections to people of power, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and George W. Bush, secured a place for himself and his ideas at the center of recent American history. Not surprisingly, given his fierce candor, his ideas were not always welcomed. Indeed, Neuhaus was often attacked for his relentless efforts to advance his signal cause, which was to construct a religiously-informed public philosophy for the American experiment in ordered liberty. Still, he is considered by many to be one of the most important Catholic intellectuals of the last 100 years.

Neuhaus' biography is to be written by Randy Boyagoda, a critically-acclaimed novelist, critic and professor of American Studies based at Ryerson University in Toronto. Boyagoda has contributed to Harper's, The New York Times, National Review, First Things and other notable publications. "Neuhaus had an American life like no other," Boyagoda observes, "and I hope my book does service to that incredible life." Publication is set for September 2013.