….The art of the obit is celebrated in a book, just published, “The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries,” by Marilyn Johnson, herself a former obituary writer.
The book is a delight, and my only quibble is that Johnson gives relatively short shrift to the man who, in my view, was the best obituary writer of them all….I recommend her book, but once you’ve finished it, see if you can’t track down a slim volume published a few years ago under the unusual title “52 McGs.”
It collects the best obituaries of New York Times obit writer Robert McG. Thomas, and as I say, it doesn’t get any better than that. (Obituaries mentioned include those of former UW president Fred Harvey Harrington and UW Law School professor Frank Remington.)