At this site we have not much relied on biography. But if we set out to explore a little further Dag Hammarskjöld’s concept and practice of negotiation, there is no better start than to read his closest UN colleagues’ efforts to describe his character and conduct on the job. Sound principles and strategies are effective only when embodied and lived. From this perspective, Hammarskjöld’s individuality—how he struck his colleagues, what they admired in him, where they faulted him—will shed light. Our four informants are distinguished: Sir Brian Urquhart, a military man of courage, strategic insight and organizational expertise, later Hammarskjöld’s foremost biographer; Ralph Bunche, 1950 Nobel laureate for his peace work in the Middle East, African-American, brilliant, loyal; Andrew W. Cordier, a veteran UN leader with whom Hammarskjöld shared every task, later dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; Rajeshwar Dayal, an Indian diplomat entrusted by both Nehru and Hammarskjöld with the most difficult tasks. In this entry, their testimony; in the next, a return to Hammarskjöld’s ideas about the key element of political processes: negotiation. The Latin roots of the word are nec + otium: not-leisure. What were our ancestors thinking of?