I enjoy reading obituaries, especially ones that are a little different. Since I don’t live in the Columbus, Ohio area yet, I wasn’t able to go with my sister to hear James R. Hagerty when he appeared at a bookstore there. But, I did pick up his book at the library, Yours Truly: The Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story.
Hagerty writes obituaries for The Wall Street Journal. He suggests we should all write our own obituary so they say what we want, while highlighting what we view as the high points of our lives. As an avid obituary reader, I like his comment. “If an obituary can’t be fun, what’s the point of dying?” He shares examples of interesting obituaries. If you don’t want to write your obituary, what about your life story to share with your family? I had an aunt and uncle who both wrote their life stories.
Whether you’re writing a life story or an obituary, Hagerty suggests you start with three questions.
What were you trying to do with your life?
Why?
And how did it work out?
He includes obituaries of heroes, people he considers characters, and the life story of his mother, a journalist whose column attracted nationwide attention when she was eighty-five. As a librarian, though, I immediately recognized Vartan Gregorian’s name as “the man who saved the New York Public Library”. I did cry over a story in “A Gallery of Heroes”.
I’ve read other books about writers of obituaries, such as Heather Lende’s books about her life writing obituaries in Alaska, beginning with If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name. I think it’s an art. A good obituary writer adds a spark of life to the obituary. It becomes more than a string of facts. Hagerty encourages everyone to do that with Yours Truly.
Yours Truly: An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story by James R. Hagerty. Citadel Press, 2023. ISBN 9780806542072 (hardcover), 203p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
I agree with you. I like reading obituaries, perhaps more so the older I get. I did like the Heather Lende book, and this is on my list too.
OK, went on the phone and put it on hold.
See, the internet is good for some things!
That’s what it’s best for, putting items on hold or ordering something. I hope you enjoy it, Jeff.
Local paper here no longer runs humorous or offbeat ones. Pretty much has rules that make them all standard format.
Blah. That doesn’t mean someone can’t write a different one for the funeral home, Kevin. I like the offbeat ones.
This sounds like a very good book, and I hope I can get a copy someday. I also like the sound of Heather Lende’s books. I read your review of one of her books, Finding the Good.
Tracy, I hope you can get this or Heather Lende’s book. Maybe the library will carry them.