Last Words of Distinguished Men and Women Shelved in Library
A reader recalls a Cedar Rapids Public Library visit to the Biography shelves amid a dream of basement book cuts. The note covers deathbed utterances from Darwin to Huss, Marie Louise to Napoleon’s sister, and Rousseau’s plea to see nature one last time.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Cedar Rapids
Marie Louise
Napoleon
Jonas Hanway
George Buchanan
Louis XVI
Philippine Marie Hélene
Last Words Reflections From Eastern Iowans
A reader recalls famous farewell lines and satirically contemplates placing a book titled Last Words of Distinguished Men and Women in the basement. The excerpt muses on wit, mortality, and the urge to express thoughts before death.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Andrew Bradford
Pennsylvania
Samuel Garth
Tightrope walk between humanism and faith in modern clergy
Paul G. Donelson of Strawberry Point, pastor of the United Methodist Church, argues that Christians must balance humanistic concern with religious faith without becoming zealots. He compares this to Jesus walking a tightrope and urges a middle path that reconciles humanity and divinity.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Christ
God
Man
Paul G. Donelson
Strawberry Point
United Methodist Church
Also Mentioned on This Page
Frederic Rowland Marvin
Fleming H. Revell
Marvin
Charles de la Bédoyere
John Huss
Jerome of
Prague
Patrick Bronte
Writing Sisters
Charles Darwin
Lord Byron
Quin
James
Anthony
William Wycherley
Edward I
England
Elisabeth Young
Charles Wolfe
John Calhoun
Haydn
Charles II of England
Nell Gwynn
President Garfield
Gen
Winfield Scott
Socrates
Mozart
Anaxagoras
Abdur Rahman Khan
Afghanistan
Queen Victoria
Paul Scarron
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Joseph II
Germany
Joseph
Anne Boleyn
Henry Ward Beecher
Hobbes
Francis Buckland
Rabelais
the Great
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
John Greenleaf Whittier
Johann Forster
Keats
Harriet Martineau
Paul Pestel
Sir Thomas More
Mary Wollstonecraft
San Francisco
Kin Hubbard
the Gazette
Abby
The
Gazette
P.O
Iowa
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!