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What is this
new book about?
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Who's included in the book ? |
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These are original obituaries ? |
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Are there many contemporary celebrities in the
book? |
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Did the thing they were famous for cause their
death? |
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How did their fame attribute to their ending?
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Were there any new discoveries you learned about
death? |
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What is the one most important thing you hope
the readers will learn? |
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And how did we do that? |
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What is this
new book about? |
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I believe the
manner of death is the most
concise summary and perhaps the true epitaph of a person’s life. In
many
obituaries, and in many biographies, the true cause of death is often
omitted,
though in fact reveals the most poignant snapshot of an individual’s
life. It’s
not the last words but the last days that tell of the life lived
before. I
agree with Matthew Arnold when he said, “The truth sits upon the lips
of dying
men.” |
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Who's included in the book ? |
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There are
over 1,000 famous people in The Portable Obituary,
primarily
included because we’re often fascinated with celebrities who seem
larger than
life, but aren’t allowed to know how they really handled death. I
wanted to see
if their famous deeds and accomplishments influenced their process of
dying. On one level, I wanted to know if
their death matched the courage, adventure, hardship, joy, or
actions
they portrayed in life. After working on The Portable
Obituary I found
that life, famous or not, can only be fully understood backward. |
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These are original obituaries ? |
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Socrates was
a celebrity in ancient Greece, and I
imagined what an obit written about him today might highlight. Although
I
wanted to examine social sciences and history from the perspective of
death, on
another level it was pure curiosity that motivated me to write this
book. I
ultimately wanted to know how the rich, famous, and powerful, from the
dawn of
civilization to our modern times, really died. |
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Are there many contemporary celebrities in the
book? |
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There are
many other books and television
programs that document the ins and outs of celebrities’ careers. But
when a
famous person dies, their death gets the ultimate spin; publicists,
handlers
and estate trustees attempt to hold back the real truth. I wanted to
know what really
happened to the singers and artists of our favorite songs? How did the
popular stars in TV
shows from
the past decades die? Was the cause of death of Nobel Laureates
reflected in
their life pursuits? Did bestselling authors succumb to the very issues
or
advice they wrote about? |
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Did the thing they were famous for cause their
death? |
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Many times it
seemed so. I wanted to know if well-known
saints, for example, died because they were saints, or was the quest to
be
saintly the thing that killed them? Did the guy who invented the wheel
get
killed by progress, run over, shall we say, by the very thing he
created? For
many others, it was the small facts about their personal lives, a
lingering
affliction, or lifestyle, long hidden from the public that proved to be
their
ultimate cause of death. |
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How did their fame attribute to their ending? |
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From baseball
greats to movie stars who emulated
their own heroes, they often died in a similar fashion as the ones they
imitated, as if attracting not only the greatness but the fate in how
they
would die. For others, it was a wish, not a death wish, but a
premonition they
repeated over and over, such as the rock star who stated many times
he’d never
see the age of thirty, only to die three months shy of that time table
he had
set in an unexplained plane crash. |
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Were there any new discoveries you learned about
death? |
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Death is
nothing new—dying has and always will
be the thing that makes history, history. But one interesting
phenomenon I saw
over and over is how the sick and supposed dead rallied and willed
themselves
to live longer until a time, an event, a landmark in the celebrated
dying one’s
life was reached. That’s why so many die, it seems, within weeks of
their
birthday, anniversary, or some other important celebration. |
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What is the one most important thing you hope
the readers will learn? |
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Once
discovering the intimate details in The Portable Obituary
it makes it
impossible to view a notable person’s life and accomplishments the same
way as
before. But more importantly, it is my hope that we may all have long,
prosperous and peaceful lives. |
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And how did we do that? |
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I can offer
this advice for whatever stage of
living you may be at: Write your own epitaph now. As you’ll see in The Portable Obituary, when the day
comes that someone like me sums up your life in a sentence, or writes
your
thumbnail bio with 500 words or less, you might want to choose
carefully the
things you do and don’t do. There’s no telling what will make you most
remembered. |
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