Life
At the age of three, Stepanek started to write poetry to cope with the death of his older brother. His first five books are: Heartsongs, Journey Through Heartsongs, Hope Through Heartsongs, Celebrate Through Heartsongs and Loving Through Heartsongs. All five works made the New York Times bestsellers list. He wrote that a "'Heartsong' is a person's special gift to be shared with others... or a person's 'reason for being.'" Two additional books were published posthumously; both also were New York Times bestsellers. One is Reflections of a Peacemaker (Mattie Stepanek's final collection of poetry), and the other is Just Peace: A Message of Hope (a collection of Mattie's peace essays and e-mail correspondence with Former President Jimmy Carter). In 2007, Just Peace was awarded the IPPY Gold Medal for Peacemaker Book of the Year. Template:Http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1156.
In 2002, Stepanek began a three-term appointment as the Muscular Dystrophy Association National Goodwill Ambassador, due to his national high profile because of his poetry and related appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, and Good Morning America. In 2003, Billy Gilman - singer and friend of Mattie's - released an album called Music Through Heartsongs: Songs Based on the Poems of Mattie J.T. Stepanek. The album reached number 15 on the U.S. Top Country chart and number 109 on the US Billboard 200. Stepanek can be heard reciting his poetry on several tracks.
Read more about this topic: Mattie Stepanek
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more—the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort—to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires—and expires, too soon, too soon—before life itself.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Peasants are a rude lot, and hard: life has hardened their hearts, but they are thick and awkward only in appearance; you have to know them. No one is more sensitive to what gives man the right to call himself a man: good-heartedness, bravery and virile brotherhood.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“Vacations prove that a life of pleasure is overrated.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)