The Secret of Heroism: A Memoir of Henry Albert Harper

In December 1901, Henry Albert Harper drowned in the icy Ottawa River while attempting to save Bessie Blair, a young woman he barely knew. Harper had happened upon Blair's party that afternoon; when she broke through the ice, he plunged into the freezing water without hesitation. Both perished. Future Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, who knew Harper personally, wrote this memoir to unravel the mystery of such selfless courage. What inner resources, what quality of character, drives a man to give his life for a stranger? The result is less a biography than a meditation on heroism itself, an attempt to understand how ordinary people are capable of extraordinary sacrifice. Published over a century ago, this brief, deeply felt work endures for readers who seek to comprehend the nature of moral courage and what it might mean to live and die nobly.