“Within the short period of a year, she was a bride, a beloved wife and companion, a mother, a corpse,” reported The National Intelligencer on the death of

For 10 years, "The Economist" has included unique and original obituaries in a popular column. The selections are remarkable because of the people written about

This book considers the cultural meanings of death in American journalism and the role of journalism in interpretations and enactments of public grief, which ha

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • An "extraordinary ... profoundly moving" history (The New York Times Book Review) of the American Civil

What obituaries tell us about our culture, past and present, based upon a study of more than 8,000 newspaper obituaries from 1818 to 1930