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.
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