LEADER 00000cam  22000004a 4500 
001    ocm61704809 
003    OCoLC 
005    20060731000000.0 
008    050915t20062006nyua     b    000 0 eng   
010      2005052817 
020    0060758759 
024 30 9780060758752|c(hardcover)|d52495 
035    (OCoLC)61704809 
040    DLC|beng|cDLC|dYDX|dBAKER|dOCO|dNPL|dBUR|dVP@|dOCLCQ|dXMA 
042    pcc 
049    WHPP 
050 00 PN4784.O22|bJ65 2006 
082 00 070.4/4992|222 
100 1  Johnson, Marilyn,|d1954- 
245 14 The dead beat :|blost souls, lucky stiffs, and the 
       perverse pleasures of obituaries /|cMarilyn Johnson. 
250    First edition. 
264  1 New York :|bHarperCollins,|c[2006] 
264  4 |c©2006 
300    viii, 244 pages :|billustrations ;|c24 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-239). 
505 0  1. I walk the dead beat -- 2. A wake of obituarists -- 3. 
       Name that bit -- 4. The mighty and the fallen of New York 
       : -- The Irish sports pages -- The franchise -- Portraits 
       of grief -- Goodbye! -- Attention must be paid -- 5. Now 
       you know -- 6. Ordinary Joe -- 7. The egalitarians -- 8. 
       Tributes -- 9. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse : -- 
       The obituary capital -- Boiled in oil, and other -- 
       Terrible fates in the Daily Telegraph -- A few words about
       the code -- Following the Guardian into the mist -- An 
       Independent bent -- Lives of the Times -- 10. Googling 
       death -- 11. The obit writer's obit 
520    Obituaries are history as it is happening. Whose time am I
       living in? Was he a success or a failure, lucky or doomed,
       older than I am or younger? Did she know how to live? 
       Where else can you celebrate the life of the pharmacist 
       who moonlighted as a spy, the genius behind Sea Monkeys, 
       the school lunch lady who spent her evenings as a ballroom
       hostess? No wonder so many readers skip the news and the 
       sports and go directly to the obituary page. This book is 
       the story of how these stories get told. Enthralled by the
       fascinating lives that were marching out of this world, 
       Marilyn Johnson tumbled into the obits page to find out 
       what made it so lively. She sought out the best obits in 
       the English language and chased the people who spent their
       lives writing about the dead.--From publisher description.
650  0 Obituaries|xHistory and criticism. 
938    Baker & Taylor|bBKTY|c24.95|d18.71|i0060758759|n0006518591
       |sactive 
994    90|bWHP