"There is nothing morbid in the hobby of collecting epitaphs from cemeteries," Janet Greene writes in the forward of her book "Epitaphs to Remember". "Unless it is in searching old graveyards for the chance of a laugh at a startling inscription."

Epitaphs on old gravestones from the period of American settlement and colonial times are as much a record of life during that time as memorials to the people whose heads lie beneath each stone. Personal beliefs, achievements, or even annoying traits are all fit into these epitaphs, the most final of words on the lives of people who lived so long ago.

Take this wonderfully short, and quite to the point, bit of prose:

Here lies as silent as clay
Miss Arabella Young
Who on this 21 of May
1771
Began to hold her tongue


Janet Greene's "Epitaphs to Remember" is rich with such examples of these last words, and an enjoyable read any time of the year.

Price:  $11.00 Sale: $9.50