Wythe Leigh Kinsolving

Wythe Leigh Kinsolving (November 14, 1878 – December, 1964) was an American Episcopal priest, writer, poet, Democratic Party political advocate, sometime pacifist, and anti-Communist. He wrote nine books and dozens of letters and op-ed essays for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and regional papers. He gave an invocation for a national audience at the 1924 Democratic National Convention. Prior to the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, he strongly opposed going to war against Nazi Germany.

Kinsolving was born in Halifax, Virginia, the son of the Rev. Ovid Americus Kinsolving (1822-1894)(who had worked in Middleburg, Virginia during the American Civil War and been imprisoned for his Confederate oratory) and his third wife. Three of his half brothers also became clergymen; his half-brother George Herbert Kinsolving became the Episcopal bishop of Texas. Wythe Leigh Kinsolving received an M.A. degree from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., in 1902, and a B.D. degree from Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va., in 1906. That same year, he married Annie Laurie Pitt, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Robert Healy Pitt, editor-in-chief of a leading Southern Baptist periodical, the Religious Herald.

In 1906, he became rector at Church of the Epiphany in Barton Heights, Richmond, Va., but resigned this position two years later.

In December 1908, newspapers around the country reported that Kinsolving had confronted his father-in-law over questions the latter raised about his mental health, that the two ministers had a fist fight, and that he had resigned the Epiphany pulpit as a result. Kinsolving denied that he had hit anyone, and stated that his resignation was to take other work.

He went on to serve several other Episcopal churches in Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee, before going to Europe for World War I relief work in 1917-18, under the auspices of the YMCA. He published a book of poetry and essays, From the Anvil of War, reflecting his experiences abroad, and his desire for all Christians to be united into a single world church.

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