The Book Of Eulogies [Hardcover]

Phyllis Theroux (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 1997

This invaluable anthology is the first and only collection dedicated to the art of the eulogy. For the past several years, Phyllis Theroux has collected the most eloquent and moving writing commemorating a death, assessing a life, or offering solace to the bereaved. Ranging from Thomas Jefferson's magisterial eulogy for George Washington to Anna Quindlen's affectionate memorial for her grandmother; from Helen Keller's words about her dear friend Mark Twain to Adlai Stevenson's about Eleanor Roosevelt, The Book of Eulogies establishes that great eulogies are a celebration of remarkable lives that can illuminate, confirm, inspire, and redirect our own.

Theroux has included some of the world's most well-known tributes, such as Pericles' Funeral Oration, Jules Michelet's appreciation of Jeanne d'Arc, Victor Hugo's ringing words on the one hundredth anniversary of Voltaire's death, Cardinal Suenens's eulogy for Pope John XXIII. But most of the eulogized assembled here are eighteenth- to twentieth-century Americans, and the stories of their lives illuminate our history with a particularly intimate light. In Robert Kennedy's extemporaneous remarks upon hearing of the death of Martin Luther King, or Eugene McCarthy's tribute to his friend and colleague, Hubert Humphrey, the values, wisdom, and spirit of both the eulogized and the eulogizer are revealed.

The Book of Eulogies is a sourcebook for anyone who must find words of solace, understanding, and inspiration on the occasion of a beloved's death. It is also a treasury of astonishing eloquence, passion, and humanity -- a record of extraordinary lives, seen through the eyes of those who knew and loved them.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author Phyllis Theroux has assembled a large collection of funeral praises, and, amazingly, there's nothing morbid about it. A number of noted writers, including Thomas Merton, Peter Matthiessen, William Styron, H. L. Mencken, Hannah Arendt, and many others offer very lively thoughts on the departed. The book is well organized in thematic sections, and included in the more than 100 essays are a number of tributes to people whose lives may have been ordinary, but who also inspired very moving tributes. As editor Theroux notes in her introduction: "Some of the people are famous. Others are obscure. But all of them have one thing in common. When they died, someone wrote about them uncommonly well."

From Library Journal

Theroux has gathered over 100 eulogies delivered in the form of spoken tributes, editorials, letters of condolence, essays, and poetry. Many of these testimonials are eloquently penned by the well known to commemorate the well known (e.g., Thomas Merton on Flannery O'Connor, Robert F. Kennedy on Martin Luther King). Others are equally compelling memorials to unknown souls by everyday people. There are helpful commentaries by the author. A worthwhile addition to any collection.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (May 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684822512
• ISBN-13: 978-0684822518
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Phyllis Theroux is an essayist, columnist, teacher and author. She is the critically acclaimed author of "California and Other States of Grace", a memoir, two collections of essays, "Peripheral Visions" and "Nightlights: Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark", an anthology, "The Book of Eulogies", and a children's book, "Serefina Under the Circumstances". In 2002, a novella, "Giovanni's Light", was published at Christmas. Her newest book, "The Journal Keeper: A Memoir", will be published by Grove Atlantic in March 2010.

A contributing essayist on the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" from 1992 - 1996, Theroux's columns, op-ed pieces, reviews and feature stories have appeared in various newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and International Herald Tribune. In the l980's, she was a monthly columnist for Parents Magazine. In the l990's she wrote a monthly column for House Beautiful. Her essays continue to be anthologized in numerous collections.

Following the publication of "The Book of Eulogies" in l997, Theroux created "The Great American Portraits Program", which was sponsored by the Library of Congress and toured various cities in the United States. She has been a guest professor and lecturer at numerous forums, colleges and universities.

The founder of Nightwriters, which conducts writing and creativity seminars in the United States and abroad, Theroux occasionally conducts one-on-one editorial seminars with individual writers who come to spend time working in her writer's cottage in Ashland, Virginia.

A community activist and educator, in 1989, she formed a non-profit organization, "Winners in Grade School", to attract grants and support an inner-city Washington, D. C. elementary school where she taught creative writing to fifth graders between 1989 - 1993. During that time she created a consortium of private schools to be partners in education with the school.

A graduate of Manhattanville College, with a B.A. in Philosophy, she lives with her husband, Ragan Phillips, in Ashland, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent perspective on the meaning of our life on earth, February 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book Of Eulogies (Hardcover)

You cannot read this book without getting a sense of the importance of each soul and the real value in our interactions with other people. For it is how others remember us that matters, and how we touch each others lives that lasts. It is a very moving collection.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sensible anthology, November 9, 2000

By 

Elsie Wilson (Aberystwyth, Cymru) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book Of Eulogies (Hardcover)

A collection of eulogies, as the title implies, along with some letters and writings on death and grief. It is a curious fact that, as shown here, the most unlikely people can be eloquent in the face of death. Many of the eulogies here quoted are beautiful and moving not for the sake of the dead but for the power of the language used to carry them back to the hearers' and readers' memories. Especially noteworthy are Atatürk's memorial to soldiers ~ both Allies and Central Powers ~ who died at Gallipoli in W.W.I, Richard Selzer on his mother, Neru on Ghandi ~ more than can be listed. Not at all the morbid book one might think this would be; it is, in fact, more a celebration of the possibilities of life than a mourning about death.