Cornelius Ryan's Private Battle (5 cents)

World War II historian Cornelius Ryan died at age 54 of metastatic prostate cancer in 1974. He had the disease (metastatic when discovered) for over four years. During that period of time, he kept a detailed journal (mainly on tape), as did his wife, Kathryn Morgan Ryan. Neither apparently knew about the other's journal. The book was published four years after he died.

Ryan had written the first two of his three books on World War II, and was in the process of beginning the third, "A Bridge Too Far" when the disease struck. The journals tell of his struggle to complete the book, the medical progress of the disease including his visits to five different specialists in 1970, each of whom suggested totally different courses of treatment, the relationship between husband and wife, and the struggles that they had with their two teenage children (and the struggles both of their children were having). It also tells a story of their many friendships, of their parents (his mother in Dublin; her father in Iowa) and of his enormous determination to keep up those friendships (through fishing trips, dinner parties, and evenings out) even when in great pain, hiding the truth of his condition from some, sharing it with others. What may be most amazing was the travel, to the Caribbean for r and r, and to Europe for book related events even when his illness was most debilitating.

This, I would not think, is a book I would enjoy. But, to the contrary, I found it mesmerizing. It is a 450 page book that I read in two evening sessions, my eyes glued to the pages. It shows what good writing, and honest writing, can do.