THE POET'S TESTAMENT

Self-trained Italian sculptor Giacomo Manzù, the son of a Bergamo shoemaker, was best known for his bronze doors for the Salzburg Cathedral, and the Doors of Death for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The story of the creation of the doors for St. Peter's is included in An Artist and the Pope. Manzù struggled after losing his faith, but with the encouragement of Pope John XXIII, completed the commission. Author Curtis Bill Pepper took the artist's recollections of his meetings and dialogues with the Pope and wove them into a moving journalist's narrative.--Cf. Edward R. DeZurko, The Georgia Review, v. 23, no. 2, Summer 1969, p. 264-266.