On reading obituaries

austinkleon:

So, I’ve decided that my mid-year’s resolution is to read obituaries every morning. I first got the idea from Maira Kalman — she reads the obits every morning:

This week there was an obituary about the man [Curtis Allina] who developed the Pez dispenser. It was an incredible obituary because he was raised in Vienna, lost his entire family at Auschwitz, and came to America and worked for this company that made peppermints, which is what Pez is short for. He did something that was considered completely trivial, which was designing and marketing Pez dispensers. But I think the sum of every obituary is how heroic people are, and how noble. So it gives you a nice beginning to the day.

And then read this in Charles Wheelan’s book:

Read obituaries. They are just like biographies, only shorter. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives.

And when I was on tour I read this lovely obit for Leo Dillon which gave me a ton of ideas for a book I want to write someday, and Joan Rivers’ hilarious explanation for why she reads them: “To meet new men!”

The NYTimes app has a dedicated obit section, the Economist posts theirs online, and there are a few twitter feeds for ‘em: [@NYTObits](http://twitter.com/nytobits] @washpostobits @guardianobits

Where are some other great places to read obituaries online? Who writes the best ones?

I like this. Gonna do the same.

43 Notes/ Hide

  1. ialwaysreadobituaries reblogged this from austinkleon
  2. deathworks reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    “This week there was an obituary about the man [Curtis Allina] who developed the Pez dispenser. It was an incredible...
  3. izzykinsss reblogged this from austinkleon
  4. nargles4life reblogged this from austinkleon
  5. randomlyhaphazard reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    Just might start doing this.
  6. mrdaynryan answered: obituaries.com - pretty much catalogues the newspaper obits from all over America and Canada.
  7. lights-thatwont-fade reblogged this from austinkleon
  8. yenta answered: I like searching the obit tag on metafilter.com
  9. emilyqualey answered: Obits from your hometown or where a mass of your relatives live.
  10. bustr reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    I like this. Gonna do the same.
  11. odana answered: Find the smallest, most ho-dunk, backwoods newspapers you can. Seriously. I suggest starting in my home region of Southern West Virginia.
  12. austinkleon posted this

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