The first and only appearance of Sister Martin de Porres, O.P., at the offices of B&B Books of Dubuque, Iowa, had not been a planned part of her sad itinerary that frigid February morning, but her visit was, nonetheless, eagerly anticipated by the publishing house staff.

After all, Sister Martin de Porres had been born in Dubuque, and her scholarly distinctions and international career had been held up as an exemplar, at one point or another, by every Sinsinawa Dominican nun who taught the Catholic youth of Northeastern Iowa. On top of which, Sister Martin's book, Warrior, Daughter, Saint: the Story of St. Matilda of Canossa, had become one of the best sellers of 1973--relative to its own market niche, of course. Riding the surge of enthusiasm which followed Matilda's unexpected canonization in 1972 (unexpected, that is, to American Catholics, who had largely forgotten Matilda's beatification in 1927) Warrior, Daughter, Saint represented, as the marketing people liked to say, exciting new opportunities for all concerned.

For Sister Martin, the paperback was her first venture into the popular market, topping off a lengthy curriculum vitae filled with catalogs of Etruscan statuary and comparative studies of early Christian iconography.

For B&B Books, it was the first release under its new imprint, Marcellina's Bookshelf ("Empowerment Through Faith, Not Feminism"), a line of inspirational texts for teenage Catholic girls that showed every promise of becoming a successful ministry.

And for the publisher, it represented a special milestone: it was the first book released by B&B Books to be written by anyone other than himself.