Introduction

To the world, Jack Chick was an enigma. Some cast him as a purveyor of hate, angrily consigning all rotten sinners to a burning hell.

Others admired his consistency, volumes of gospel tracts with wide ranging stories, invariably ending with a single appeal to be saved.

His courage in exposing false piety and false religions won him notable enemies. But thousands flooded the Chick Publications mail box with gratitude, finally free from their bondage.

To his friends he was generous to a fault. But anyone attempting to divert his life calling met a steely resolve.

Gifted with extraordinary insight and communication skills, his stories rang true to the human heart. And the anointed message pierced deep inside the spirit.

In his death even his enemies begrudgingly acknowledged his impact. Over more than fifty years the tract, THIS WAS YOUR LIFE became recognized as the most widely read gospel tract in the history of the world.

Year after year millions of tracts streamed from the Chick printing press. The 50+ year total neared 900 million at the time of Jack’s death. Late in Jack’s life one reporter surmised that he was probably the most widely read author alive at that time surpassed only by a few dead ones in all of history.

Jack’s heart for the lost responded to missionaries appealing for foreign translations by financing the design work for more than a thousand foreign language titles in over a hundred languages.

Files at Chick Publications contain thousands of testimonies sent in over the years. We can only imagine how great the crowd was at His welcome-home party on October 23, 2016, inside the “pearly gates.”

In life, some thought they knew Jack. But this book, by someone who knew him well (and researched the rest) goes a long way in setting the record straight. Even others of us who worked almost every day with Jack were surprised by some of the details that David’s research revealed.

Please read on to learn more about a man whose sole dedication in life was to persuade you to join him someday in the New Jerusalem.

In Loving memory
George Collins (Jack’s Friend)

While Jack Chick was alive, one news reporter claimed that he was likely the most widely read living author, based on nearly 900 million copies of his gospel tracts printed and distributed.

The centerpiece of Jack’s 150 titles was "This Was Your Life", one of the the most widely read gospel tracts in the history of the world. It was translated into most of the major languages of the world —and many minor ones.

Many wondered, “Who is this JTC?” Jack chose not to answer, studiously avoiding the glory that he believed belonged to his Lord.

David W. Daniels was Jack’s collaborator in tract writing in the last 16 years of Jack’s life. He tells of a far different man from Jack’s detractors, who tried to paint Jack as a purveyor of hate, who routinely consigned sinners to a burning hell.

It is a fitting tribute to a reclusive man, gracious, selfeffacing, and generous, but with laser-like resolve to advance the Kingdom of God —one simple gospel tract at a time.