A survey for the elders – which books have you ‘reread’ the most? I’m not asking for favorite books or most compelling, but which books have continued to read again?
UC#3
UC#3: Col. Red Reeder / West Point Plebe
Colonel Russell Potter “Red” Reeder Jr. (March 4, 1902 – February 22, 1998) was a United States Army officer and writer.
Reeder was born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on March 4, 1902. His father, Russell Potter Reeder, Sr., was an officer in the United States Army. Reeder and his family moved to different military bases around the country. He wrote about his army upbringing in the book Born at Reveille. At the age of eleven, he saved the life of a drowning younger child in Casco Bay, Maine. He was awarded the Treasury Department Silver Lifesaving Medal for this achievement in August 1913. Reeder entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in June 1920 with an appointment from Alabama, played football and baseball as a cadet, and graduated as a member of the Class of 1926.
In April 1944, Reeder was assigned to command the 12th Infantry Regiment within the Fourth Infantry Division. Reeder’s regiment of 3,200 soldiers fought on Utah Beach during D-Day. On June 11, 1944, during the Battle of Normandy, Reeder received a shrapnel wound in his ankle that almost severed his left leg. Reeder was taken back to England, then to the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington and his leg was amputated. He retired because of his disability in September 1945, but remained on active duty until October 1948.
There is so much to say. For today, let’s just look at a summary from Wikipedia.
The Prophet is a book of 26 prose poetry fables written in English by the Lebanese-American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran. It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf. It is Gibran’s best known work. The Prophet has been translated into over 100 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history, as well as one of the best selling books of all time. It has never been out of print.
Synopsis
The prophet Al Mustafa has lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses topics such as life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.
