THE LAST YEAR OF THOMAS MANN

A personal postscript to a great life in both a memento and a memorial as well as an informal record of his last days and hours. ""Illumined and warmed by grace"", his intellectual vigor is undiminished in these months; his modesty, his kindness, his humor, his fearlessness are noted with affection. Work- ""such an anxiety"", and again his ""only joy"" fills most of his days-- along with his lectures, his travels, his return to the town of his childhood, and the festivities which attend his 80th birthday. Finally the thrombosis of the leg, which will end his life, sends him to the hospital just a few days before his death....A brief epitaph, which serves as a personal release of grief as well as an expression of love and respect in which others of his admirers may wish to share.