In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry illustrates and explains prime examples of rings, bracelets, brooches, and other pieces of mourning jewelry from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Like the exhibition at the Massachusetts Historical Society, this volume showcases the materials in the Society’s collection and that of Sarah Nehama, a jeweler and private collector who co-curated the event at the MHS. These elegant and evocative objects are presented in context, including written explanations of the history, use, and meaning of the jewelry, as well as related pieces of material culture, such as broadsides, photographs, portraits, and trade cards. The jewelry included illustrates some of the most exemplary types, from early gold bands with death’s head iconography to jeweled brooches and intricately woven hairwork pieces of the Civil War era. Distributed for the Massachusetts Historical Society

Details decorative art created to memorialize and commemorate death from the 1600s through World War I. Outstanding examples of mourning jewelry, portrait miniatures, pottery and glassware, paintings and sculpture, posthumous photographs, hair-work memorials, and more. Includes background information on mourning practices, current values, glossary, and bibliography. An excellent resource for Victoriana, Georgian and Victorian memorial arts, and antique jewelry.

A harrowing chronicle of England's early-eighteenth century 'gin craze.--The Atlantic Monthly

The bestselling poet Malcolm Guite chooses forty poems from across the centuries that express the universal experience of loss and reflects on them in order to draw out the comfort, understanding and hope they offer. Some of the poems will be familiar, many will be new, but together they provide a sure companion for the journey across difficult terrain. Some of Malcolm’s own poetry is included, written out of his work as a priest with the dying and the bereaved and giving to the volume a powerful authenticity. The choice of forty poems is significant and reflects an ancient practice still observed in some European and Middle Eastern societies of taking extra-special care of a bereaved person in the forty days following a death – our word quarantine come from this. They explore the nature and the risk of love, the pain of letting go and look toward glimpses of resurrection.

BONUS: This edition contains a The Late, Lamented Molly Marx discussion guide and an excerpt from Sally Koslow's With Friends Like These. The circumstances of Molly Marx’s death may be suspicious, but she hasn’t lost her sense of humor. Newly arrived in the hereafter, aka the Duration, Molly discovers that she can still keep tabs on those she left behind: Annabel, her beloved four-year-old daughter; Lucy, her combustible twin sister; Kitty, her piece-of-work mother-in-law; Brie, her beautiful and steadfast best friend; and of course her husband, Barry, a plastic surgeon with more than a professional interest in many of his female patients. As the police question Molly’s circle of intimates about the circumstances of her death, Molly relives the years and days that led up to her sudden end—and takes responsibility for her choices in life. Exploring the bonds of motherhood, marriage, and friendship, and narrated by a memorable and endearing character, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is a hilarious, deeply moving, and thought-provoking novel that is part mystery, part love story, and all heart.

The only generic and diachronic study of learned and popular lament and its socio-cultural contexts throughout Greek tradition in which a great diversity of sources are integrated to offer a comprehensive and penetrating synthesis.