Remembrances and Celebrations: A Book of Eulogies, Elegies, Letters, and Epitaphs - Hardcover

Harris, Jill Werman

3.81

16 ratings by Goodreads

9780375401237: Remembrances and Celebrations: A Book of Eulogies, Elegies, Letters, and Epitaphs

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375401237 ISBN 13: 9780375401237

Publisher: Pantheon, 1999

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This is a collection of powerful and inspirational responses to loss and to the age-old impulse to honor and memorialize the uniqueness of each human being.

For the bereaved, the ritual of delivering a eulogy can seem insurmountably difficult. Remembrances and Celebrations provides gentle guidance in this profoundly important task, with a wide range of examples of memorial tributes and expressions of bereavement drawn from both the famous and the obscure, from ancient times to the present.

Here are the words of famous lovers: Henry Miller's homage to Anais Nin, Lillian Hellman's eulogy for Dashiell Hammett. Here are fallen heroes commemorated, in the heartfelt words of Yitzhak Rabin's granddaughter at his funeral, in Ossie Davis's farewell to Malcolm X, in Earl Spencer's tribute to the Princess of Wales. Here, too, are moving letters: Charles Dickens to his wife on the death of their daughter, Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson on his daughter's death, an anonymous Royal Air Force pilot to his mother on the eve of his final battle.

Auden's "Funeral Blues" is here, along with the Cavafy poem recited by Maurice Tempelsman at Jacqueline Onassis' service. And there is room for humor as well, as in Hilaire Belloc's famous epitaph, "When I am dead, I hope it may be said, 'His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.'"

Remembrances and Celebrations is a comforting and affecting anthology of the literature of mourning, and a welcome aid in times of our own bereavement.

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Review:

Finding the right words at a time of loss can understandably cause a eulogist much angst and apprehension. How does one commemorate and honor a person whose life feels like a miracle and whose passing still feels incomprehensible? Fortunately, this book of eulogies can offer guidance as well as inspiration for the bereaved. For example, Wallace Stegner writes a specific yet universal memory to his mother Hilda: "I have a clear mental image of your pursed lips and your crinkling eyes, and I know that nothing I can say will persuade you that I was ever less than you thought me."

Included here are the wrenchingly beautiful eulogies to great loves, including Lillian Hellman's final words to the love of her life, Dashiell Hammett, and Henry Miller's tribute to his legendary lover, Ana�s Nin. And it must have been with bottomless sorrow that Edward Kennedy mustered his tender and deeply personal tribute to his second slain brother, Robert Kennedy. These are all heartfelt and eloquent words, certain to comfort and aid the eulogist. --Gail Hudson

From the Back Cover:

"So often it takes a person's death to understand the totality of the life that preceded it. Remembrances and Celebrations, a collection of elegies and eulogies of the famous by the famous, is fascinating reading and a learning experience."
--Dominick Dunne

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