Rest in pieces : the curious fates of famous corpses / Bess Lovejoy.

  • Lovejoy, Bess.
Date:
[2013], ©2013
  • Books

About this work

Description

IN THE LONG RUN, WE'RE ALL DEAD. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure. The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated, and even filed away in a lawyer's office. Their fingers, teeth, toes, arms, legs, skulls, hearts, lungs, and nether regions have embarked on voyages that crisscross the globe and stretch the imagination. Counterfeiters tried to steal Lincoln's corpse. Einstein's brain went on a cross-country road trip. And after Lord Horatio Nelson perished at Trafalgar, his sailors submerged him in brandy--which they drank. From Mozart to Hitler, Rest in Pieces connects the lives of the famous dead to the hilarious and horrifying adventures of their corpses, and traces the evolution of cultural attitudes toward death.--Publisher's description.

Publication/Creation

New York : Simon & Schuster, [2013], ©2013.

Physical description

xviii, 329 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Contributors

Contents

Saints and sinners. Saint Nicholas ; Thomas Becket ; Voltaire ; Molière -- Science and medicine. Laurence Sterne ; Emanuel Swedenborg ; Joseph Haydn ; Ludwig van Beethoven ; Albert Einstein ; Alistair Cooke ; Ted Williams -- Crime and punishment. John Milton ; Abraham Lincoln ; Charlie Chaplin ; Elvis Presley ; Geronimo -- (Un)solved mysteries. Edgar Allan Poe ; Jesse James ; Lee Harvey Oswald ; Christopher Columbus ; D.H. Lawrence -- Body politics. Alexander the Great ; Vladimir Lenin ; Benito Mussolini ; Adolf Hitler ; Eva Perón ; Jim Thorpe ; Che Guevara ; Osama bin Laden -- Lost and found. John Paul Jones ; Dante Alighieri ; René Descartes ; Frederick the Great ; Thomas Paine ; William Blake ; Dorothy Parker -- Collectible corpses. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ; Napoleon Bonaparte ; Lord Byron ; Grigori Rasputin ; Oliver Cromwell ; Ned Kelly -- Love and devotion. Galileo Galilei ; Thomas More ; Percy Bysshe Shelley ; David Livingstone ; John Barrymore -- Last wishes. Jeremy Bentham ; Timothy Leary ; Gram Parsons ; Hunter S. Thompson -- Appendix: The way of all flesh : what happens to bodies after death.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Languages

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    GAR /LOV
    		Open shelves

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Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9781451654981
  • 1451654987
  • 9781451655018
  • 1451655010