Markings
Dag Hammarskjold served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1953 until his death in a 1961 plane crash in what is now Zambia. After he died, a manuscript was found in his New York apartment with instructions that it could be published if it seemed of interest. The result, translated by W. H. Auden and Leif Sjoberg, is a spare journal of prayers, poems, quotations, and self examinations kept across the decades of his diplomatic career. It is a book about how a public figure carrying enormous responsibility tried to live an interior life. Readers ranging from theologians to CEOs to politicians have cited it as a formative influence. It is short, quiet, and unforgettable.
What you might want to know about Markings
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
The private spiritual journal of a United Nations Secretary General, published after his death.
Swisher has cited Markings in interviews as one of the books she returns to, praising it as a rare honest account of how a person with real power tried to keep an interior life.
Hammarskjold writes from a Christian tradition, but the reflections on duty, solitude, and doubt speak to readers of any background.
Markings was written by Dag Hammarskjold, published in 1963 by Vintage.
Markings is 240 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Markings takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Markings is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.