Dear Gift of Life: A Mans Encounter with Death

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.