Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjold

Dag Hammarskjold's personal journal recording his spiritual growth, self-questioning, and resolutions from 1925 to his death in 1961

Markings

Wystan Hugh Auden

Leif Sjöberg

Spiritual diary of a former United Nations Secretary-General.

Markings, trs. from the Swedish

Dag Hammarskjold left behind the manuscript of this book to be published after his death. It is a remarkable record of the spiritual life of a man whose public image was universally known and admired -- a record that reveals the extent of his commitment to the Way of the Cross. Hammarskjold himself described the manuscript as a "sort of white book concerning my negotiations with myself and with God." The first entry is a poem written about 1925; the notes made during the 1940's and 1950's reflect a period of constant spiritual growth, self-questioning, and resolution; and the book ends with a poem he wrote only a few weeks before his death. In Markings Hammarskjold felt that he gave the only true profile of himself. Lacking as it does any reference to the external world, the book constitutes only haft a portrait, as W. H. Auden points out in his Foreword. But as we read it, the outer image of the Secretary-General persists and heightens the sense of loneliness Hammarskjold conveys, the severity with which he marked his own spiritual conduct and measured the integrity of his soul, his conception of life as a summons, and his premonition of death. Many will read this book primarily as a unique historical document; many will find in its meditations an unusual devotional book. But, above all, almost every reader is bound to feel, with Auden, that he has had "the privilege of being in contact with a great, good, and lovable man."

Saint-John Perse

Marie René Auguste Alexis Leger

Affords an English-speaking audience rare access to the revealing correspondence between two Nobel prize winners. Marie-Noelle Little's expansive prologue to this book, sets the stage for situating the two world-renowned personalities in their exchange of letters during the six years before Hammarskjold's death. The letters themselves are characterized by world vision, a noble tone, and delicate sentiments. Alexis Leger - later known as the poet Saint-John Perse - and Dag Hammarskjold were important figures in diplomatic and literary spheres and their lives shared a number of uncanny parallels that eventually brought them into contact with one another. Alexis Leger, French Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, perhaps saw in Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold the continuation of his diplomatic career, while Hammarskjold, in the midst of difficult international crisies, found inspiration and strength in reading and translating Perse's poem Chronique. This correspondence has both literary and political content that sheds light on some of the major political events of the day but also serves as an important manifestation of the tradition of connecting diplomacy and the arts.

Dag Hammarskjold

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