In June of 1960, the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Press decided that it was time that the story of Dag Hammarskjold be presented to young readers. The editors searched for the man most qualified to do the job, and decided on Burnet Hershey, a foreign correspondent with years of experience in countries all over the world.
The finished manuscript of the Dag Hammarskjold biography was delivered to the editors just five days before the unfortunate and untimely death of Hammarskjold. This volume stands, therefore, as a memorial to the world's number one diplomat.
The son of a Swedish Prime Minister, Dag Hammarskjold decided early in life to make his career in public service. He studied law and economics at the Universities of Uppsala and Stockholm, and for a short time was an assistant professor of political economy. At the age of twenty-five, he became Secretary of the Unemployment Insurance Plan of Sweden. A few years later he was made Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Chairman of the Riksbank—the National Bank of Sweden. After World War II, he became an under secretary in the Swedish Foreign Office, and in 1951 was appointed deputy foreign minister.
In April, 1953, he was elected the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. Because of the caliber of his service, he was unanimously reelected for another five year term in 1957.
His instinctive sense of fair play and his unswerving dedication to the principles of the UN Charter gained for Hammarskjold the respect of nations throughout the world. His willingness to go anywhere in the world in the interests of peace, and his ability to act speedily and decisively in crises won worldwide respect for his office and for the United Nations.
It was on one of his many trips to prevent a brush-fire war from becoming a big one that he was killed. While flying into Katanga province in the Congo, the plane in which he was riding crashed, killing all aboard. Hammarskjold had died as a Soldier of Peace.
Concerning his own career, Hammarskjold declared: "From generations of soldiers and government officials on my father's side I inherited a belief that no life was more satisfactory than one of selfless service to your country or humanity...From scholars and clergymen on my mother's side I inherited a belief that, in the very radical sense of the Gospels, all men were equal as children of God and should be ... treated by us as our masters in God."
—from the book
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