Theodore Maynard’s landmark 1945 biography Too Small a World: The Life of Mother Frances Cabrini has been buried by the sands of time. It was, and remains, the only study to draw directly from letters, private records, Vatican documents, and interviews with those who personally knew the Italian-born nun, while still capturing the cinematic drama of her story.

“Maynard’s work was considered the standard treatment of Cabrini’s life,” explains Nicholas Redemacher of Cabrini University. Yet after Milwaukee’s Bruce Publishing Company closed its doors in the early 1970s, Too Small a World never passed through the presses again. Aside from a few self-published scans, it has been unavailable for over forty years.