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The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries
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Author
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Marilyn Johnson.
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Publisher
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Harper Perennial
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Format
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paperback
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Product Dimensions
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8
x
5
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0.8
inches
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ISBN
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9780060758769
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Pages/Publication Date
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252/2007
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Daedalus Item Code
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11584
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This item is not available.
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Description
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Having penned memorable obituaries for the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Jackie Onassis, and Johnny Cash, for Life and other magazines, Marilyn Johnson here takes a literate, irresistible look at the appeal of obituaries—what poet Billy Collins called "the Irish sports page"—for their readers and especially for their writers. She documents a veritable community of regular and occasional obituary writers, and interviews some of the most engaging or noteworthy. Here are the powerful Chuck Strum of the New York Times obit page, who keeps a vault of some 1200 news-making obituaries for people who haven't died yet, and James Fergusson of London's Independent, a former antiquarian bookseller who transformed obituaries from "desperate chronologies" into essay pieces. Johnson also wonders at the inevitable coincidences of those whose lives were remarkably similar and who died within days—or even hours—of each other, from Princess Diana and Mother Teresa to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. "An uplifting, joyous, life-affirming read for people who ordinarily steer clear of uplifting, joyous, life-affirming reads. Of all the personalities captured in The Dead Beat, few are more endearing than [the author's].... Her enthusiasm is infectious."—LATBR
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