The main issue facing the Church is conversion. Is baptism necessary for salvation? Is it necessary for everyone? Is it necessary for the Jews? John Beaumont’s compendium of American Catholic converts, The Mississippi Flows into the Tiber: A Guide to Notable American Converts to the Catholic Church, presents an exhaustive list of conversion stories which show that nothing has changed in God’s eyes. The same call that Elizabeth Ann Seton answered over two hundred years ago is still answered in our day by people who know that there is only one effective response to the question, "What must I do to be saved?"

• 1013 pages.

Reviews:

"... many compelling stories ... encyclopedic ... This book will provide hours of inspiration, instruction, and pure pleasure. ... It is a heavy book to pick up, but much more difficult to put down. ... I highly recommend this important and worthwhile book to everyone."

Dale Ahlquist, Gilbert Magazine.

"an inspiring work that covers nearly five hundred eminent American converts who lived from the 17th to the 21st century. In each of these entries, which are in alphabetical order, we find a succinct biography and, when known, one or more causes of conversion, often in the person’s own words. The entries range from part of a page to several pages, with citations from the subjects’ writings. A list of sources is also provided. This book will surely prove to be an invaluable reference work, but more importantly, it is a collection of priceless testimonies, well worth pondering at leisure."

Anne Barbeau Gardiner, Culture Wars

"Fascinating, illuminative, and inspiring compilation of the continuous stream of American men and women whom God has drawn home to the Catholic Church. The Mississippi Flows into the Tiber is far more than a mere encyclopedic list of biographical data; it is full of inspiring reflections on their struggles and victories in living out the Catholic faith in their work and home life."

Marcus Grodi, Host of The Journey Home on EWTN.

"... extraordinary, uplifting and grace-filled stories of conversion ..."

Francis Phillips, Catholic Herald (U.K.)

"Year by year from the country’s founding, there has been growth in the Catholic Church and not only through birth, but also by conversion. I know, I am one of them. This book will surprise you in many cases and also gives in brief snippets what brought them to the Roman Church."

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"This book captures the journey so many have taken towards embracing the Catholic Faith. A must-read for Catholics and Non-Catholics alike as it captures the spiritual quest toward beauty and truth that defines the human condition."

Larry Kudlow, Host of CNBC’s The Kudlow Report.

"Converts make the best Catholics, it is often said. That may or may not be true, but at least every convert had a reason for joining the faith, and in my case, at least, it was something I did not take lightly. John Beaumont’s collection of conversion stories will be a delight to converts, to cradle Catholics, and especially to all those who are somewhere in the process, for whom these wonderful accounts will no doubt be a ray of light and an inspiration."

Alfred S. Regnery, lawyer, author and former publisher.

"It’s a wonderful compilation of convert stories."

R. R. Reno, First Things

"Beaumont’s tome ... contains more than enough inspiration for fishers of men."

Barbara E. Rose, New Oxford Review

"People embrace Catholicism for many reasons, as many as there are people who request reception every year. Perhaps no single book better illustrates this than John Beaumont’s The Mississippi Flows Into the Tiber, in which he presents a cavalcade of converts in American history. Some are quite literally stars, of the Hollywood variety: Get Smart’s Don Adams, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Faye Dunaway and 'Buffalo Bill' Cody, to name just a few. There are archliberals and archconservatives. There are rich, poor, artists, scientists and engineers, the famous and (today) forgotten. A few were saints or are on the path to canonization — Dorothy Day, Venerable Cornelia Connelly and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Others — e.g., Henry F. Ford II and Ernest Hemingway — left the Church. And besides cataloguing these great stories, this sweeping work also gives a veritable how-to manual of evangelization and convert-making. Additionally, it provides a large helping of apologetics. This title has some of the best apologetics arguments captured in print. “

Brian O'Neel, National Catholic Register

"This extraordinary guide to American converts shows just how many roads lead to Rome. John Beaumont’s book The Mississippi Flows into the Tiber is an impressive feat, and an invaluable tool for arguing with atheists. … The important thing to say about such a massive work of reference is that it is much more than that: Beaumont has deliberately included long passages, either written by the converts themselves or by their biographers, which are inspiring essays in their own right. There are as many different reasons for joining the Church (or obstacles holding one back) as there are individuals; some of these essays provide excellent material for arguments about the faith one might have with sceptical friends. For this reason the book is invaluable, encompassing as it does an extraordinary range of different characters, with all their human flaws and yet who have all been touched by the grace of conversion. This is not a work of hagiography; Catholic converts are sinners, not saints, some of them spectacularly so. In these pages you will find the notorious mobster, Dutch Schultz, as well as Ernest Hemingway, who married four times and who finally committed suicide. … Clearly, there is nothing as fascinating as the lives of other people – especially when it concerns something as personal as the journey of the soul."

Francis Phillips, Catholic Herald (U.K.)