Mixing Oil and Water: The Beginnings of Chautauqua at Fair Point treats the background and development of Chautauqua as a part of the imagination of H. H. Moore, Lewis Miller, John H. Vincent, and others in the Chautauqua Lake Camp Meeting at Fair Point and then since 1874 as the Chautauqua Assembly. The first decade of Chautauqua’s existence as a church body (but independent) has not been examined carefully before. One can see the roots of many traditions coalescing in that first decade into what has become the powerful institution that is the Chautauqua of today.

Dr. Heitzenrater is an emeritus faculty member of Duke University, having taught at The Divinity School for sixteen years. He lived in the Chautauqua area for nearly all his early life and has spent summers on the grounds in his later years. He graduated from Jamestown High School as valedictorian in 1957. In addition to having degrees from three Duke schools, he also has three honorary doctorate degrees—from Southern Methodist University, University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, and the University of Indianapolis.
 
Besides growing up in this area, Dr. Heitzenrater’s family has owned a cottage directly across the lake from Chautauqua in Chedwel for over seventy years and has enjoyed the summer season at the institution since 1950. He and his wife, Karen, presently own a place in Chautauqua at 22 Palestine Drive, equidistant from the Amphitheater and the United Methodist House, where he has served as weekly chaplain three times. He has worked as a volunteer at the Oliver Archives of Chautauqua and has taught classes in the Special Studies program.
 
As a scholar and researcher of John Wesley and the early Methodists, he has published numerous books and articles in the field. During his academic career, he has lectured and taught classes many times on five continents. For twenty-five years he led the Wesley Works Editorial Project as the General Editor. His last major work was An Exact Likeness: The Portraits of John Wesley, published by Abingdon Press.