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Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther
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Death Be Not Proud (original 1949; edition 1953)

by John Gunther (Author)

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2,436376,165 (3.76)50
Biography & Autobiography. Nonfiction. HTML:

"If courage is the antidote to pain and grief, the disease and the cure are both in this book. . . . A story of great unselfishness and great heroism." â??New York Times

Johnny Gunther was only seventeen years old when he died of a brain tumor. During the months of his illness, everyone near him was unforgettably impressed by his level-headed courage, his wit and quiet friendliness, and, above all, his unfaltering patience through times of despair. This deeply moving book is a father's memoir of a brave, intelligent, and spirited boy.… (more)

Member:katiekrug
Title:Death Be Not Proud
Authors:John Gunther (Author)
Info:Modern Library (1953)
Collections:Your library, To read
Rating:
Tags:Nonfiction, memoir, death, grief

Work Information

Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther (1949)

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Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
Deeply moving, true story relates a father's recollection of his son's courageous and spirited battle against the brain tumor that would take his life at the age of seventeen. ( )
  Huba.Library | Jan 3, 2023 |
Inspiring book of author's son who dies from cancer yet graduates from high school and completes other goals while suffering. ( )
  kslade | Dec 8, 2022 |
Gut-heartwrenchingly moving. I tried reading this years ago but couldn't get into the way Gunther told the story––too erudite for me at the time. I guess I've matured because I rolled through this in one day. I couldn't put it down. I was intrigued by the 1940s dialogue and history and medicine capability at that time, but I was thoroughly enchanted with Johnny and his heroic quest just to live. The reminder of how precious life is sometimes can sound so trite, but put forth in this memoir of a 17-year-old who had the zen of life to end each day with "What a great day, Mom"––even if his brain had just been opened up again for drainage––brought me to my knees. When I'm having a bad day, I will think of this young, brave man and try to follow his example every day of my life. ( )
  crabbyabbe | Nov 6, 2022 |
This book is one of those conceits where someone died, so someone close to the deceased decided that having some heart-wrenching emotional experience based on that and the close connection to the person had two effects:

1. It made the subject of the tale (the deceased person) more special than millions of other people who've died of the same tragic thing.

2. It made the survivor into a first-rate author.

In this case, the experience had neither of these effects, so far as I could tell. The major effects it did have from what I've seen, however, are also two in number:

1. It led to this book being inflicted on a bunch of kids in middle school, much to the detriment of their potential love of learning.

2. It gave me the catalyst needed to learn to stop reading a book that sucks. Before that, I always read a book to the end, no matter how bad it was.

Having quit reading a book assigned in school about halfway through, just because it was so awful, you might think it negatively affected my grade. The thing was so ploddingly predictable, though, that I just BSed my way through the quizzes and essay question tests on the book and got an A on all relevant class materials. I don't recommend it. ( )
  apotheon | Dec 14, 2020 |
Death Be Not Proud chronicles Johnny Gunther's gallant struggle against the malignant brain tumor that killed him at the age of seventeen. The book opens with his father's fond, vivid portrait of his son - a young man of extraordinary intellectual promise, who excelled at physics, math, and chess, but was also an active, good-hearted, and fun-loving kid. But the heart of the book is a description of the agonized months during which Gunther and his former wife Frances try everything in their power to halt the spread of Johnny's cancer and to make him as happy and comfortable as possible. In the last months of his life, Johnny strove hard to complete his high school studies. The scene of his graduation ceremony from Deerfield Academy is one of the most powerful - and heartbreaking - in the entire book. Johnny maintained his courage, wit and quiet friendliness up to the end of his life. He died on June 30, 1947, less than a month after graduating from Deerfield.
  A-JCHS | Sep 19, 2019 |
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Epigraph
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so:
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death: not yet canst thou kill me.
From Rest and Sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go—
Rest of their bones and souls' delivery!
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke. Why swell'st thou then?
     One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
     And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!

                                                  â€”John Donne
Dedication
In Memoriam
John Gunther Junior
1929—1947
First words
Foreword

This is not so much a memoir of Johnny in the conventional sense as the story of a long, courageous struggle between a child and Death.
1

Johnny came home for the Christmas holiday in 1945, and he looked fit and fine. He was lengthening out physically and otherwise, as children do all of a sudden, responding as it were to the release of some hidden inner spring. We saw a lot of each other, and just before getting on the train to return to school in January, he exclaimed, "Pop, that was the best ten days I ever had!"
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Biography & Autobiography. Nonfiction. HTML:

"If courage is the antidote to pain and grief, the disease and the cure are both in this book. . . . A story of great unselfishness and great heroism." â??New York Times

Johnny Gunther was only seventeen years old when he died of a brain tumor. During the months of his illness, everyone near him was unforgettably impressed by his level-headed courage, his wit and quiet friendliness, and, above all, his unfaltering patience through times of despair. This deeply moving book is a father's memoir of a brave, intelligent, and spirited boy.

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Book description
John Gunther was sventeen when he died of a brain tumor. This book is a father's memoir of a brave spirited boy.
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