Press

Mallory Smith grew up in Los Angeles. A talented writer, radio producer and podcaster. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford, all while battling cystic fibrosis. She lost that battle at age 25. Mallory’s mom took her diaries and crafted them into a remarkable book.

Frank Buckley interviews author and publicist Diane Shader Smith, who’s daughter, Mallory, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and authored the posthumously published book “Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life.”

“Cystic fibrosis is a disease that does a lot of taking — of dreams, of time, of travel, of friendships, of freedom, of potential, of plans, of lives,” Mallory Smith wrote in the introduction to her journals.

Before Mallory Smith died age 25, she asked her mum Diane to publish her diaries, going back to her teens. When Diane looked through them after Mallory’s death she discovered a rich internal life that her daughter had recorded between hospital stays and periods of declining health.

Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life (Spiegel & Grau; ISBN: 978-1-9848-5542-8) collects diary entries of Mallory Smith—a remarkable young woman who was determined to live a meaningful and happy life despite her struggle with cystic fibrosis and a rare superbug—from age fifteen to her death at the age of twenty-five.