John Gunther, Jr. (1929- June 30, 1947), was the son of the American author John Gunther and is the central figure in John Gunther's book, Death Be Not Proud, which tells of the younger Gunther's death at the age of seventeen from a brain tumor. [1] Born in 1929 in Paris, France, Gunther was diagnosed with a brain tumour at age 16 and died from the illness 15 months later at Memorial Hospital, now known as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City[2] [3]. In his father's memoir, Johnny Gunther's struggle against the disease is documented and he is described as a very talented young man by all who knew him; the sharpness of his intellect is evidenced by the fact that he corresponded briefly with Albert Einstein about physics before his illness prevented him from continuing his academic pursuits. Immediately before his death Gunther realized his dream of living long enough to graduate from prep school at Deerfield Academy and was accepted to college at Harvard University, though he died before he was able to enroll. Gunther is buried on the second floor of the Mausoleum of Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York[4]
References
- ^ John Gunther, Death Be Not Proud (1949). Harper Perennial edition 1998: ISBN 0-06-092989-8
- ^ John Gunther Jr. Obituary in The New York Times, July 1, 1947
- ^ Abstract of Krueger, Gretchen Marie "Death Be Not Proud: Children, Families, and Cancer in Postwar America" Bulletin of the History of Medicine - Volume 78, Number 4, Winter 2004, pp. 836-863
- ^ [1] Ferncliff Cemetery official site
