His condition worsens, affecting his vision and causing a protrusion on his head to become infected and leak pus. He keeps himself busy with scientific work in the family garage. Johnny is discharged but remains in New York for some time to be monitored, finally returning home to Connecticut. Returning to the hospital, Gunther is told that Johnny’s tumor is getting much worse, now threatening to make Johnny blind and paralyzed before almost certainly killing him. Though Johnny seemingly makes a quick recovery from the operation, he faints a few weeks later. They are only partially successful, removing half the tumor.
The doctors at the hospital operate, spending six hours in surgery and discovering a tumor the size of an orange in his brain. He retains his humor and cheer throughout the ordeal, even when undergoing a painful spinal tap. Johnny is sent to New York City’s Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. Gunther describes seeing the faces of the doctors and knowing immediately that the tumor is terminal. The Gunthers drive to Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Johnny returns to school, where his symptoms worsen, and the doctors there conclude that he is suffering from a brain tumor. Traeger finds nothing wrong, although Johnny complains of a stiff neck. Johnny returns from school for spring break, apparently in fine health. Gunther notes that his son excelled at many intellectual pursuits and would have started at Harvard had he lived. Gunther describes his son in glowing terms-bright, witty, and handsome, with blond hair and blue eyes, thin, and considerate. Gunther traces his early years, which were happy but not the focus of his book. The title comes from the poem “Holy Sonnet 10” by John Donne, which begins “Death be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so.” Gunther begins the book with a foreword offering background about his son, Johnny, who died at the age of seventeen after a fifteen-month struggle against brain cancer.
Death Be Not Proud is a memoir by journalist and author John Gunther, published in 1949.
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