Customer Reviews

Resting Places: The Burial Sites of over 10,000 Famous Persons

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Recently I ordered the book "Resting Places: The Burial Sites of Over 10,000 Famous Persons" by Scott Wilson from the publisher. To summarize this book is an excellent reference with 10,113 notations of practically anyone who had something to do with hollywood, crime, politics, business, royalty, military, history etc. It lists brief biographical information about the personages in the book listing various things about their life while also including birth and death dates, exact locations in the cemetery where their final home can be found, it also mentions if the notable was creamted and lists the locations of the creamines.

The book comes in two volumes. It includes a very extensive bibliography, listing each book used in the research for this new edition. The index by the way is organized by city with each cemetery located in the city mentioned with the personages organized by a numbered notation of where the personages can be found in the book which is a very nice feature I might add. There are many people who I never would have imagined listed in the book.

The only thing that I do not like about the book is the Publishers Suggested Retail Price which the asking price for this title is $95.00. So I would imagine that the price alone would be a discouragement for most people interested in this hobby of ours who wish to buy it. But once you do buy it I seriously believe you will not be disappointed.

Needless to say I think you should buy this title. So don't let the price tag be a discouragement. You wont be disappointed when you buy it.

Being the son of the author i will refrain from telling you how comprehensive and articulate this body of work is; instead i will just simply say that the decades of dedicated work that i have witnessed first-hand shines through onto the pages. It has set the precedent for this line of research in a dominate form. i always have been and always will be proud of him for accomplishing this.

In regards to the previous review, pictures would be nice (only because i want credit for a few i took) and i as well am a grad of BSU. This undefeated season is almost an accomplishment in the ranks of RESTING PLACES.

Buy it! Its worth the money!

Okay, first of all, I've seen a lot of these type of books out there - and some were decent - but this one by Scott Wilson is simply GENIUS ! Not only does it include EVERYTHING that I was searching for, it included people I didn't think would be included like: "RESURRECTION MARY!" It is a really neat book because it talks about stuff you normally didn't know about the person. And Wilson pinpoints exact grave site locations that make grave hunting easier and enjoyable. I also thought it was interesting that Wilson was a BSU graduate as well as myself. I could have used this book when I was searching for celebrity sites and saved myself tons of frustration. The only 'flaw' I see is I wish it had photos of graves of the more popular celebrities. Being a photojournalist, I would love to see some quality photos - but I guess that would have made the book a THREE VOLUME set. Yeah, these books are pricey, but well worth the extra costs. Mr. Wilson did a fantastic job writing these books.

Do you like [...]? Do you ever visit cemeteries just for the fun of it? Are you totally obsessed by death? Okay, so that was a little weird, but I can answer a resounding "yes" to all of those questions. I, my friends, am a little weird. I go to cemeteries all of the time and I try to locate the graves of famous, almost famous, infamous and just plain strange people who made their mark on our culture. I love these books.

If you are not like me (and who is?) then you will still like these books, although I am not sure that you will find them to be a worthwhile investment as they are rather expensive. I originally purchased these two volumes, or so I thought, on another website that sells tons and tons of books and I only received one volume for, get this, $80. Of course I returned it, after asking them why on earth I would want the 2nd volume of a 2 volume set. So, I called my old favorite, amazon.com, and asked them if the book they were advertising would provide me with the entire book, both volumes, for approximately $100. I was told yes and both books arrived shortly and I started pouring through them like the ghoul that I am.

These books are phenomenal. A lot of research went into these 2 volumes, with a total of 10,113 people of note listed for your enjoyment. Each entry offers the name, the dates of their lives, a short synopsis of their achievements and, sometimes, their actual grave locations! Now for a person who will go out of his way to see the graves of the victims of the Son of Sam, the doctor who treated Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater and the characters from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, this is going to be your book! You can take it on your cemetery excursions and it may help you to find the grave of that actor from Prizzi's Honor and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (William Hickey) or the famous villains from that great Batman TV series in the late 60s. It's like having FIndagrave in your hands while you drive around looking for people you once watched on TV!

As I said, the price may (and probably will) turn you off. It is not worth $100 even with the incredible work that Scott Wilson put into these books, but I love them! Besides, you probably can't find them in your local library so you'll have to buy them. I don't regret buying them. Heck, what else was I going to do with $100?