Thy Son Liveth

Grace Duffie Boylan’s first edition of Thy Son Liveth was written anonymously for fear that she would be ridiculed by her peers. This book is very different from her other works. It is non-fiction…about her son who had just been killed in Flanders fighting in World War I. Furthermore, it is an exact transcription of their conversations via Morse code on a telegraph machine…after he died.

   Boylan states: “What I felt to see my only son go to war is just what other mothers have felt, and will feel, as more and more young men are given to their country. But what I have to reveal is what every father and mother should know. And quite simply I am going to tell it. This book is published with the hope that it will give comfort to those of whom the war has demanded the bodies of their loved ones.” 

   The book's message, as expressed in one of Bob's communications to his mother, is "There is no death. Life goes on without hindrance or handicap. The one thing that troubles the men who come here is the fact that the ones that loved them, are in agony." 

   This special edition of Thy Son Liveth: Messages From A Soldier To His Mother has been edited, redesigned and re-typeset for easier reading by the author’s great grand-niece. Some of the jargon of the early 20th century has been carefully replaced with words used today, to facilitate understanding as well as to avoid the distraction of words whose meaning have subtly changed over time.