978-1-58838-116-3
1-58838-116-1
$19.95 paperback
7" x 10"
132 pages black-and-white photographs
NewSouth Books |
Four
decades ago, folklorists Jack and Olivia Solomon began documenting
Southern cemeteries, recording the names, lives, and epitaphs of thousands
of the deceased. The volume they now share with us is not a Book of the
Dead, but a Book of Life.
The
Solomons reveal here their love and respect for the “final resting
places” of this world. In these pages are recorded the sorrow for a lost child, the anger
over the murder of a brother, the strengths
of an admired civic leader, the life of a beloved preacher, the character
of a stalwart soldier, as well as the grief for a mother, a father, a son,
a daughter, a wife, a husband. Many of these epitaphs console and
give promise of a “better home over yonder.” Others remind one
of the shortness of life and the surety of death. As in life, there is wit—the
humor of a wife who reminds her spouse, “I told you I was sick!”—and
profundity—the laconic remark, “She hath done what she could.” The
book also discusses historical precedents for Alabama epitaphs, different
types of epitaphs, gravestone writings as folk literature, gravestones as
architecture/sculpture, and the lettering of epitaphs.
about the authors
Jack and
Olivia Solomon are well-known Alabama folklorists and writers. Their books
include
Cracklin Bread and
Asfidity, Zickary
Zan, Ghosts and Goosebumps, Sweet Bunch of Daisies, and
Honey
in the Rock.
Photographer Suzannah Solomon is their daughter. |
