Let's read & discuss "Death Be Not Proud" by John Gunther
Details
Death Be Not Proud is a 1949 memoir by American journalist John Gunther. The book describes the decline and death of Gunther's son, Johnny, due to a brain tumor. The title comes from Holy Sonnet X by John Donne, also known from its first line as the poem Death Be Not Proud.
At the time the book was published in the late 1940s, memoirs about illness and grief were uncommon.
Gunther wrote the book in the months after his son's death, originally with the idea of printing some copies to distribute privately, as some parents had done in remembrance of soldiers who were killed in action. After writing it, however, he changed his mind and sought to have it published. Although Gunther was an experienced and extremely popular author, his publisher, Harper & Brothers, was reluctant to take on this book. They were concerned that it was too private a subject for the general public. To forestall criticism for profiting off of his death, both the author and the publisher agreed to donate all profits to children's cancer research.