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

By Jill Werman Harris

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375401237
• ISBN13: 9780375401237
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Pantheon
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.1" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

wonderful book of words from life's most difficult times

This book contains 50 eulogies (Rupert Brooke by Winston Churchill, Malcolm X by Ossie Davis, Robert Kennedy by Edward Kennedy, etc.); 42 letters of condolence (Herman Hesse to Thomas Mann, James Michener to his friends, RAF pilot to his mother, etc.); 50 elegies (songs or poems, by Langston Hughes, Emily Bronte, Noel Coward, etc.); and 110 epitaphs from the graves of Thomas Jefferson, T.S. Eliot, Hilaire Belloc and others -- my favorite: "Here lies Jane Smith, wife of Thomas Smith, Marble cutter./Monuments of the same style, $350." The selections are touching, and although it would have been nice to have name and location information about the epitaphs, the book is still an eloquent tribute to one of life's most difficult times.

This book is amazing! Everyone should read it!

This is a great book. Everyone who is dealing with or has delt with the loss of someone should read this book! It will help them.

Fantastic, a must for everyone who has loved and lost!

Ms. Harris shows uncommon sensitivity in her choice of authors. I was moved to tears of joy and sorrow on several occasions. Without a doubt Ms Harris's work will rank as one of the most thoughful and provocative volumes of how we, as human beings, deal with grief and ultimately move on.

Strongly recommended

This book consists of a very wisely chosen selection of interesting writings on human loss. The over 100 writers and subjects include Mark Twain, Abigail Adams, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, William Wordsworth, Abe Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Virginia Wolf, Martin Luther King and W.H. Auden. The tone and attitudes of each piece vary greatly; all are well written, and each is touching in a slightly different way - from the expressions of profound pain and grief at loss, to the joy and inspiration of rememberance, to the celebration of the continuance of the human spirit. Am I getting carried away? Perhaps, but with justification. The bottom line is I really like this book, and strongly recommend it to all readers.

A collection of moving tributes that transcend time

I can't remember another book that had such a profound impact on me. The tributes are written with the utmost sincerity and affection and weaved together with delicate care. "Remembrances and Celebrations" is a book that I will give to everyone I care about and will keep with me always.