Mattie Stepanek

Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek (July 17, 1990 – June 22, 2004), known as Mattie Stepanek, was an American poet, who had six books of poetry and one book of essays all reach The New York Times bestsellers list. He became a peace advocate and motivational speaker, and lobbied on Capitol Hill on behalf of peace, people with disabilities, and children with life-threatening conditions.

Stepanek suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy that resulted in his death a month before his 14th birthday. His sister and two brothers also died from the disease during early childhood, and his mother has the adult form, diagnosed only after all four of her children were born.

Life

At the age of three, Stepanek started to write poetry to cope with the death of his older brother. His first five books are: Heartsongs, Journey Through Heartsongs, Hope Through Heartsongs,Celebrate Through Heartsongs and Loving Through Heartsongs. All five works made the New York Times bestsellers list. He wrote that a "'Heartsong' is a person's special gift to be shared with others... or a person's 'reason for being.'" Two additional books were published posthumously; both also were New York Times bestsellers. One is Reflections of a Peacemaker (Mattie Stepanek's final collection of poetry), and the other is Just Peace: A Message of Hope (a collection of Mattie's peace essays and e-mail correspondence with Former President Jimmy Carter). In 2007, Just Peace...
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