Death Be Not Proud

by John Gunther

  Then Frances and Johnny spent the summer in California:

  DEAR PAPA

  I am making a model of a Messershmite 109. What part of your book are you on now.

  I’m learning the second position on my violin. I got a bicycle and I am learning how to ride.

  I fixed a contraption where you pull a string in the pantry and a bell rings in my room upstairs.

  love

  JOHNNY

  DEAR PAPA

  Aunt Hester drove us to Yosemite National Park. We saw manny water falls Redwood trees and other interesting things. Uncle Bernie had an appendix operation monday. On Wednesday he eat roast beef and potatoes.

  love

  JOHNNY

  DEAR PAPA

  thanks alot for your letters. I’m getting $.25 a week for polishing mutti shoes

  I’m going to the griffith observatory today. They have some rocks with a bulb under each rock, if you think a rock is feldspar you press a button marked feldspar and a bulb lights up under one of the rocks.

  Love

  JOHNNY

  P.S. please send me my chemistry books

  This was the first letter we had from him after he entered Riverdale in 1941 :

  DEAR MUTTI AND PAPA

  Since I saw you yesterday, I think it’s very silly to have to write you today but since I do I don’t no what to write about. I could be doing arithmetic or writing the twopage composition I have to get done by tomorrow.

  What about the new apartment?

  love

  JOHNNY

  Here are other bits of letters from Riverdale:

  DEAR MOTHER:

  I got my copy of “Inside Latin America” and I’am reading it. I just finished the chapter “Hail Columbia” or something like that. I had breakfast with Mr. Hackett again. This afternoon we might go to the radio or we might not. I’ll call you up next tuesday, maybe.

  Yesterday I paid 50c to see a movie I had seen before (I had to go) and then went to “dots” a drug store and didn’t get anything. I’m planning an electric motor me and Chris Eaton are going to make.

  Last Wednesday we went to play another socker game with another school this time we went to their field. I’m going to church in a few minutes How are both books getting on

  love

  JOHNNY

  This came to me in the summer of 1942:

  Madison, Friday July 24

  DEAR PAPA

  Thanks alot for sending the violin A string. I am haaving a marvelous time out here and I hope you can join us before going to California Thanks for calling up.

  I am taking both chemistry and tennis lessons I identified 6 metals or alloys and am making models of atoms.

  Where was your broadcast thursday 7:45? Hope to see you soon,

  love

  JOHNNY

  By early 1943 he was writing this way:

  Riverdale country School

  DEAR MUTTI,

  I am sorry I didn’t come home this weekend but apparently I didn’t make the proper arrangements. I will be sure to come next weekend. Shall I reserve Sunday as usual? If I do come over I hope we will finally get that boat.

  This weekend I am doing a lot of work on the paper. I have typed two of the stencils myself and Cyril is working on another one. Maybe we can get somebody else to do the others. Don’t worry, I am being more careful in typing on those stencils than I am on or your letter. Besides most of the stencil typing is done the other typewriter; this won has its eccentricities. (I hope you don’t get jealous!)

  Sincerely yours,

  JOHNNY

  And:

  (14 Feb 1943

  “Touch” typing—

  darling mutti I adore you

  These are from letters to me when I was covering the war:

  Aug. 17, 1943

  DEAR PAPA.

  Happy Birthday! I hope this letter reaches you about August 29, but V-mail may not be as fast from the U.S. as to it. We will send you a cable then anyway, and have a present ready for you when you come back.

  The sailboat leaks a bit; the mast has a tendency to bend in a good breeze and the centerboard gets tcusk, but we have a lot of fun in her anyway. Freddy nick-named the boat “Sinky.”

  Jerky U Rattler, the 1931 Pontiac, still goes, and Mutti actually went 30 miles per hour in her. My bicycle is in working order and Mutti’s is being repaired.

  As Mutti wrote you, Chandralehka and Nyantara Pandit were here. Now they are in New York where they are being besieged by missionaries and other people. When they were up here they had to write hundreds of letters which kept them rather occupied.

  In the begining of the sumer we decided that I should go fishing every Friday and catch some fish for dinner. After a a few times I found that I didn’t like it because I kept thinking about how I would feel if I were the fish. Mutti thought that I ought to fish anyway and not think about how the fish feels. But when I took her fishing and she tried to dehook the fish, she immediately changed her views on the subject. Now we buy our fish.

  We haven’t been able to get you on the radio yet but we have seen quite a few articles of yours in the papers. Tonight, how-ever, we will try to get you on the air again.

  love and kisses

  JOHNNY

  These are from Deerfield in 1943 :

  DEAR MUTTI AND PAPA,

  Thanks a lot for those letters and the pen that you sent me. I am having a fine time here doing lots of interesting things— including picking potatoes, I’ve picked 25 bushels so far. The first Sat. night a magician, Betrand Adams, came here and showed us some fine tricks, but I knew how some of them were done.

  Besides the four other subjects I am taking Geology which is very interesting. I found out that I had forgottne most of my latin but I am picking it up again quickly.

  All the masters and most of the boys are very nice, especially Mr. Sulivan. He said that he doesn’t believe in punishment, which is always helpful.

  Dearest love and kisses

  JOHNNY

  P.S. Thanks for calling.

  DEAR MUTTI

  The pears came; and boy do they look good! I can’t wait till they get ripe. I have never seen so big pears in my life, and of the 800 known varieties of pears, these are supposed to be the best. Thanks a lot.

  Thank you for the clippings you keep sending me—keep it up because every boy has to keep a buletin board filled with clippings, pictures, articles and other things for a week once or twice a term in English History, and the clippings you send me are not only useful for that, but are very interesting for myself.

  On Thanks-giving we saw a movie called “Holy Matrimony” which was very funny. I hope you have time to see it. A Mrs. Earl came to see her son and she told me that she knew me and you and Pa in Vienna. She sends her best regards to you and Papa.

  My cold is all gone now and I hope that you are well also and not having any mysterious ailments.

  love and kisses,

  JOHNNY

  1944 opened with:

  Jan. 10

  DEAR MUTTI,

  Here I am back at the old grind again! But, as always, it is much better than I thought it would be. This term is only eight weeks—and then comes three more weeks of vacation.

  I can not find any snow-shoes anywhere in my room, and I am positive that we didn’t bring them up. There is plenty of snow, however.

  Love,

  JOHNNY

  Jan. 30

  DEAR PAPA,

  Believe it or not, I don’t believe I forgot to take along a single thing; but the infirmary would like to know the results of the blood test I had at Dr. Traigor’s, so would you ask him to send them up.

  Thanks ever so much for the wonderful time I had during the vacation—I don’t really think that I ever had more fun on one. I’m learning to do parralel Christies. Also, I’m trying to improve my grades, which Mutti said could stand improvement.

  dearest love

  JOHNNY

  The following are bi
ts from letters to Frances:

  DEAR MUTTI,

  I read “Wind, San, and Stars” again and I think I understood it much better this time—and I really loved it. I gave an oral book report on it and got C+/A (C+ for the presentation and A for what I said). All-together I’m doing much better in English so far this term. On one thing I even got an A in the top (grammar, spelling, punctuation etc.) mark. (You know how we get 2 marks in everything we do in English.)

  I guess you will have gotten my marks by the time this letter reaches you. Remember that both of the English marks together only count as much as one of the other three. I got 97% on last term’s Physics test, and may even get A for the term.

  I hope your room isn’t too “painfully” neat. If it is, you know what can be done about it! Of course my room isn’t “painfully” neat, but it isn’t at all on the other extreme. In fact Mr. McGlynn, our corridor master, even commented to that effect, and if you were to see my room as I am writing this letter you would be quite astonished, for there isn’t anything extraneous either on my bed or on the floor.

  Did you notice in the day before yesterday’s (Thursdays) Times that the British Battleship Hood was not sunk by the Bismark, but by the cruiser Prinz Eugen? I’ve enclosed the cup-ping.

  love

  JOHNNY

  P.S. I sent that question to “Information Please”

  I’ve been doing my eye-exercises almost every day, washing my face diligently, and putting that sulfa ointment that Dr. Traegar prescribed on my spots and blackheads; and I try to be spontaneous, uninhibited, self-aware, and self-controlled;—but those vitamin pills, those sublimely wonderful vitamin pills!— well, thanks, for reminding me of them anyway. At least I hadn’t lost them, and I’ve really taken one every day (well, every day but one or two) since I got your letter.

  I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on my stamps recently. I bought a bunch of Indian stamps, most of them very old, for $12 “blind,” that is, without looking them up in the stamp catalogue, which would have taken several hours, so that neither I nor the fellow I was buying them from knew how much they were worth. They turned out to be worth over $20! Don’t worry, the guy has gypped me several times too. I think I must have quite a valuable Indian collection now, including all the airmail stamps that India ever issued, and two of the only four stamps which the state of Alwar ever issued, and a stamp which would have been worth $75 if it wasn’t fake. Don’t worry, I didn’t pay $75 for it!—it came in that group which I bought for $12.00.

  I’ve played a great deal of chess recently, and am No. 2 on the chess team. We had a match with the Greenfield Chess Club, most of whom seemed to be octogenarians at least, and they trounced us something like 8M-3!4. I was lucky to get a draw. I hope you have looked at that chess book I gave you, for it’s a very good one.

  Thanks very much for that marvelous candy and that white shirt. That laundry hasn’t come yet but I have written to Nancy about it. There couldn’t have been much in it anyway because I seem to have plenty up here. The laundry often sends me a few of somebody else’s shirts anyway!

  Has all the fertilizer arrived? And what about the water pump and the pruning and the spraying of the trees? I haven’t written Mr. Weaver about his fertilizer yet but I hope to soon. I might be able to take a weekend to do some more work on the place and perhaps plant some seeds, but I think that had better wait until after Spring Day (May 12).

  As for tennis, I’m afraid it’s entirely competitive, and about a third of the boys going out for it were eliminated. Apparently they couldn’t get equipment for the new courts. I am going out for lacrosse instead and I’m really not doing so badly in it and it’s lots of fun. I couldn’t quite face track. . . . We have a test in Biology every Friday, and I’ve got 100% in all three so far.

  I try to remember those little lectures that you gave me during vacation. Don’t get discouraged about them because I usually remember the general idea, subconsciously if not consciously. Sometimes after coming to a certain conclusion for a course of action after a long train of thought I think Good Lord, that’s what you’ve been trying to tell me for the last year.

  P.S. I’m breathing out copiously too.

  With love and spontaneity

  Johnny

  These are from notes to me:

  DEAR PAPA,

  A certain Mr. Mayer, father of one of the boys here, who was in Switzerland at the American Legation, came up here and told me that he knew Aunt Billi, who gave the message that she was well and happy, and said that he could bring back a letter to her. He is leaving soon so if you write a letter to her and send it up here maybe it can be sent to him.

  Thanks for that letter and the clipping. Is Texas really that tremendous? (or do you say that about every state?)

  I arrived safely, and so, in fact, has everything else—the things from Best’s, the trunk and even the Smith report, which is fascinating, but I haven’t had a chance to read it carefully yet. The lamp is not flourescent, but PERFECTLY adequate. It contains a 60 watt bulb, a shade, and some very flexible metal tubing (like the old broken one) so that I can shine it on any part of the desk I want to, even the typewritter, which is more than I could do with a flourescent one. Tell Mutti that people read and wrote before there were flourescent lamps.

  I have graduated from waiting on to dishwashing (usually referred to as “slops”) which is much better—the total number of meals to do is less, and it’s not nearly so nerve-racking. You don’t actually wash the dishes; they have to be sent thru a machine which theoretically does it for you. It really does fairly well, unless there is something like peanut butter. But we don’t have peanut butter very often anyway.

  I have also graduated, at least temporarily, to the Junior soccer squad. For the first time I am not on the lowest team of any particular sport since Lincoln. I hope I stay there. Our coach was also my English teacher my Freshman year and he is very nice.

  I have an ideal schedule, with study halls and subjects alternating all the way thru. The Physics teacher gayly told us it would be very easy if we spent two hours a night on it, but for me anyway it hasn’t been at all difficult so far. In French we have a teacher who’s been to France and really knows the language.

  I have plenty of clothes so never mind the rest of the laundry. Good luck on the last 8% states!

  Thanks for all three of your letters with those clippings. I did read that story by Wylie and last summer I read “A Generation of Vipers” by him also. Quite a book! But Mutti told me not to take it too seriously and I didn’t, so don’t worry over any affects it may have had on me.

  The following are excerpts from letters to his mother in the autumn of 1945 :

  DEAR MUTTI,

  Papa got the Smyth Report on atomic power for me and I am reading it. I will explain it all to you when vacation comes again. Do you know that no actual particles of matter (electrons, protons etc.) are turned into energy in the reaction? Every element weighs slightly less than the sum of the weights of the neutrons, protons, and electrons of which it consists. The loss in weight is known as the “binding energy” and it is less in U235 than in the elements into which it breaks up, so the total mass is lowered, and a corresponding (E>mc2) amount of energy is released.

  I’ve joined the Chess Club, which has started already, and have played a number of games. Aside from that, I won a dollar by beating Steve six games straight. I don’t as a rule play chess to enhance my financial assets, but I offered the bet (even money that I could beat him six straight) as a sort of joke and didn’t want to back down when he accepted.

  I got 95 and 98 respectively on the only big physics tests we’ve had so far—I hope I can keep it up. I’ve also been reading a great deal in the Science Library on Physical chemistry, atomic physics, the quantum theory, relativity and sundry other subjects like that which seem to have a peculiar fascination for me. Every now and then I get grandiose ideas for experiments or theorys which would astound the world, revolutionize science, e
tc., etc. Also, on several occasions I have suspected things which later, by deeper delving into the subject, I found to be true; something which is very gratifying.

  The package to which you referred came the next day. What a beautiful bathrobe! Thank you very much.

  These are the last two letters I had before his illness:

  Sunday, Jan. 13

  DEAR PAPA,

  I arrived safely and have started counting the days to the Spring Vacation. The winter term is the shortest one and we only have about forty actual school days. The suitcase has arrived, but the coat hasn’t, but I guess it will in a few days.

  Thanks a lot for taking care of the experiment. As long as there was any water in the acid the reaction probably went like this:

  The net result being the elimination of water as hydrogen and oxygen. After all the water was eliminated the action either stopped there or continued thus

  the net result being the changing of sulphuric acid into persulphuric acid and hydrogen. When all the sulphuric acid was eliminated it may have stopped there or God knows what may have happened before it finally stopped. Anyway, I’m awfully glad you took care of it so well.

  love

  JOHNNY

  P.S. Coat just arrived—marks will go out in a few days

  April 16

  DEAR PAPA,

  School again!—but its really not so bad after all; in fact, its lots of fun, no matter what you think over vacation. I found my key, just where I thought it was, and have resolved not to forget it again. Thanks for that clipping on Alekhine.

  I got 94% on last term’s final physics test, for the term in French, but I’m not sure of my other term marks.