Sally N. Vaughn has published a large number of articles-some 15, with 2 more now in press-- and three books concerning St. Anselm: 1. The Abbey of Bec and the Anglo-Norman State, in 1981; 2. Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan: The Innocence of the Dove and the Wisdom of the Serpent, 1987; and St. Anselm and the Handmaidens of God: A Study of Anselm's Correspondence with Women, 2002. The second book won the John Ben Snow Prize of the Conference on British Studies.
'Vaughn has written an exciting study of the role that Bec played in Anselm's career as the Archbishop of Canterbury - as Vaughn has convincingly demonstrated, the right order for Normandy and England was the result of a scripturally inspired view of history in which each reenactment in the present embodied a more perfect state of affairs. In addition to the usual apparatus that one would expect in a work of this kind, Vaughn supplies the reader with translations of primary sources and documents for each of the book's seven chapters. - I strongly encourage the serious reader to delve into Anselm's world and his vision of history. When so much about contemporary politics is vainglory disguised as altruism, the reader, including the politicians among us, have much to learn from Anselm's Other-centered exercise of power.' American Benedictine Review