A Gift of Time

By: Garson Kanin

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: Drama / 5m, 5f, extras / 4 sets / An American editor resigns his post and moves to France with his wife and two children to spend his time in writing important books. But all too shortly he learns that he is dying of an inoperable cancer, and forthwith determines to live every day, hour, and minute to the fullest: life is a gift of time. Gradually he begins to feel the pain and physical consequences of his affliction. Unfortunately, he even becomes immunized to morphine. He decides, therefore, to bear the pain and the debilities so long as his faculties remain. At that point, with his wife holding him tightly and murmuring, "I love you. Please die," he cuts his wrists and ends the agony. In the Broadway roles, Henry Fonda played the dying husband, and Olivia de Havilland, his wife. / The "affirmation of the dignity of man in the face of the remorseless enemy - mortality. Will shake you and move you. Shining tenderness. Celebrates with tenderness and humor the gifts of love and understanding that make life worth living." - N. Y. Times.