Dear Gift of Life: A Mans Encounter with Death

by Mark Van Doren (Introduction), Bradford Smith

Overview

On his birthday in 1963 Bradford Smith wrote in his diary, "At 54 I am ready, and fortunately able, to plan my life without reference to earning more money. What I do can be for the doing's sake, or expected fruits – a prospect as fearful almost as it is pleasant. What is worth doing?"

It was a formidable question, but he found an answer. Four months later he learned that he had cancer, and in the shadow – and illumination – of this fact he wrote his last pages, many of which appear in the present pamphlet.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940151498708
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	04/28/2015
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #142
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	123 KB

About the Author

Bradford Smith was born May 13, 1909, in North Adams, Massachusetts, and died July 14, 1964, in Shaftsbury, Vermont. Between these two dates he lived a full life as a teacher, writer, and peacemaker. A college professor who had taught English literature both here and in Japan, he served with the Office of War Information from 1942-45, first in Washington and later as Chief of Central Pacific Operations. But his lifelong concern was for world peace, an interest which he shared with his wife, Marion Collins Smith.

After the war he turned professionally from college teaching to writing books of social history, biography, and religious philosophy, among them Portrait of India, Meditation: the Inward Art, and Men of Peace. On his birthday in 1963 he wrote in his diary, “At 54 I am ready, and fortunately able, to plan my life without reference to earning more money. What I do can be for the doing’s sake, or expected fruits – a prospect as fearful almost as it is pleasant. What is worth doing?”

It was a formidable question, but he found an answer. Four months later he learned that he had cancer, and in the shadow – and illumination – of this fact he wrote his last pages, many of which appear in the present pamphlet.