This rich anthology of memorial tributes serves as a welcome reminder that, although words cannot necessarily assuage grief, they can provide tremendous comfort and perspective during our times of loss. The likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Benjamin Franklin, W.H. Auden and Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as ordinary folk from the seventeenth century to the present are mourned and celebrated in the memorable eulogies, condolence letters, poems and epitaphs collected in these pages.

New to the paperback edition are eulogies of writer Andre Dubus, by his son Andre Dubus III, and of John F. Kennedy, Jr., by his uncle Edward M. Kennedy.