David Bradley is the third of seven sons of a prominent Madison, Wisconsin family. His father, Harold C. Bradley, was Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School for forty-three years. The parents were active in civic and community affairs in Shorewood Hills, where their home was a favorite gathering place for neighborhood children. David attended Wisconsin High School in Madison, Dartmouth College (B.A. 1938) and St. John's College, Cambridge, England (1938-39).
After school, Bradley became a freelance writer. His attention soon focused on Finland, battling Russia in the winter war of 1939-1940. As a result of boyhood acquaintances and contacts as a skier on the Midwest jumping circuit and the 1940 U.S. Olympic ski team, Bradley knew many Finns and had great respect and sympathy for them as the underdogs in that war. His sympathy soon manifested itself in his appointment as a war correspondent for the Wisconsin State Journal. He arrived in Finland too late to cover the brief war, but not too late to write several articles and to increase his love and respect for the Finns.
Following in his father's footsteps, Bradley took his M.D. degree from Harvard in 1944. After internship he was selected for six months training in the Manhattan District as preparation for the Bikini Atom Bomb tests of 1946. His experiences there led to the publication of his first book, No Place to Hide. Written during 2 years of surgical residency at the University of California Hospital, San Francisco, this best seller exposed man's utter nakedness in an age of nuclear weapons. His success as an author led to a two-year lecture tour on atomic energy and world government.
Bradley returned to Finland in 1960-62 and 1967-68 to teach English and writing at Helsinki University as well as the Business School, and the Technological Institute. Between those teaching assignments he published Lion among Roses--A Memoir of Finland. The book was translated into Finnish, praised there as “the best book ever written about Finns by an outsider,” and reviewed favorably in the United States.
Other publications by Bradley include The Journey of a Johnny-come-lately (1955) and Expert Skiing (1959). He has received numerous honors, including a Gutenberg Award, 1949, for No Place to Hide, and the Finnish-American Society award, and Aleksis Kivi Society medal for Lion Among Roses.
Bradley presently [written in 1970] resides in Hanover, New Hampshire, with his wife Elisabeth B. McLane and their six children. He had served three terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and one term as Selectman of Hanover. He writes and teaches English and writing at Dartmouth College, Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, and at Kimball Union Academy.
