pt. 1: PUBLIC TREASURES. Chapter 1: The Creators. Johann Sebastian Bach / William F. Buckley
Ludwig van Beethoven / Franz Grillparzer
Charlotte Brontë / William Makepeace Thackeray
Emily Dickinson / Susan Gilbert Dickinson
Walt Whitman / Robert Green Ingersol
Rupert Brooke / Sir Ian Hamilton
Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Jean Renoir
William Butler Yeats / Wystan Hugh Auden
Flannery O'Connor / Thomas Merton
Wystan Hugh Auden / Hannah Arendt
John Hersey / Bernadine Connelly
William Stafford / Kim R. Stafford
Chapter 2: A Nation's Heroes and Martyrs. Jeanne d'Arc / Jules Michelet
Ulysses S. Grant / Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa / Patrick Henry Pearse
Lawrence of Arabia / Sir Winston Churchill
Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi / Jawaharlal Nehru
Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee / Eric Sevareid
Yitzhak Rabin / Noa Ben-Artzi Philosof
Chapter 3: Public Servants. George Washington / Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson / Nicholas Biddle
Abraham Lincoln / Carl Sandburg
John Fitzgerald Kennedy / Sean Quinlan
Adlai Ewing Stevenson / Richard N. Goodwin
Sen. Hubert Horatio Humphrey / Eugene J. McCarthy
Chapter 4: Reformers and Renegades. Henry David Thoreau / Ralph Waldo Emerson
John Peter Altgeld / Clarence S. Darrow
Eugene Victor Debs / Heywood Campbell Broun
Jane Addams / Christian Century editorial staff
Eleanor Roosevelt / Adlai Ewing Stevenson
John XXIII / Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens
Martin Buber / New York Times editorial staff
Robert F. Kennedy / David Murray
Bishop James Albert Pike / William Stringfellow
Cesar Estrada Chavez / Peter Matthiessen
Jessica Mitford / Molly Ivins
Chapter 5: Warriors in the African-American Story. Daniel Webster / Rev. Theodore Parker
John Brown / John H. Finley
Abraham Lincoln / Frederick Douglass
Charles Sumner / Joseph H. Rainey
Burghardt Du Bois / W.E.B. Du Bois
The martyred children of Birmingham / Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
James Chaney / Fannie Lee Chaney
Rev. James J. Reeb / Robert A. Reed
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King / Robert F. Kennedy
Vernon E. Jordan Sr. / Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
James Baldwin / William Styron
Arthur Robert Ashe / New York Times editorial staff
Marian Anderson / New York Times editorial staff
Chapter 6: A Nation's Dead. Pericles' funeral oration
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Memorial tablet / Kemal Pasha Atatürk
A valedictory to the unknown soldiers of World War II / James O'Neill Jr.
Days of remembrance / Elie Wiesel
Chapter 7: The Eulogy as Social Commentary. Queen Anne of England / Sarah, Duchess of Malboro
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher / Sinclair Lewis
William Jennings Bryan / H.L. Mencken
Madezhda Mandelstam / Joseph Brodsky
Marilyn Monroe / Diana Trilling
Chapter 8: Death Be Not Solemn. Riley Grannan / William Herman Knickerbocker
Ambrose Bierce / Florence King
Minnie Marx / Alexander Woollcott
Sister Beatrice of Jesus, OCD / Sister Robin Stratton, OCD.
pt. 2: PRIVATE LIVES. Chapter 9: Parents. Laurie Lee on his mother, Annie Lee
Richard Selzer on his mother, Gertrude Selzer
Betsy McCully Cooper on her mother, Eloise McCully Simmons
Charles Trueheart on his father, Jerome Saltz
Julie Jouston on her mother, Rutheda Hunt d'Alton
Marie Harris on her mother, Marie Murray Harris
A eulogy to my unknown father / Rosa Ordaz
Catharine A. MacKinnon on her father, George E. MacKinnon
David R. Cook on his mother, Nelle Reed Cook
Chapter 10: Children. Susy Clemens / Mark Twain
Mary White / William Allen White
Peter Benjamin Weisman / Mary-Lou Weisman
John Conrad Jr. / John Conrad Sr.
Chapter 11: Brothers and Others. Clark Ingersoll / Robert Green Ingersoll
Alice Lee Roosevelt / Theodore Roosevelt
Amy Catherine Wells / H.G. Wells
Kitty O'Donnell Quindlen / Anna Quindlen
Roberta Marget Schultz / Madeline Marget
Francis Xavier Gallagher / Father Joseph Gallagher
Chapter 12: Such Good Friends. James Ferrier / Robert Louis Stevenson
Mark Twain / Hellen Keller
Maj. Robert Gregory / William Butler Yeats
Anne Sullivan Macy / Alexander Woollcott
Edward F. Ricketts / John Steinbeck
H.L. Mencken / William Manchester
Nance MacDonald / Mary McGrory
Lewis B. Puller Jr. / Sen. Bob Kerrey
Elizabeth Lyngdoh / Albert Pingree
Chapter 13: Animal Loves. Old Drum / George Graham Vest
Calvin / Charles Dudley Warner
Coco / Vineyard Gazette editorial staff.
pt. 3: WORDS OF CONSOLATION. Chapter 14: What Death Means. Buddha
Chapter 15. Grief Defined. On sorrow / Henry James
On overcoming suffering / Katherine Mansfield
The living are defined by whom they have lost / Anna Quindlen
Mothers who have lost a child / Erma Combeck
Alex's death / Rev. William Sloane Coffin
Chapter 16: Letters of Condolence. Dr. Samuel Johnson
T.E. Shaw (Lawrence of Arabia)
Chapter 17: Poetry. After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes / Emily Dickinson
Musée des Beaux Arts / Wystan Hugh Auden
Dirge Without Music / Edna St. Vincent Millay
from Anthony and Cleopatra / William Shakespeare
On My First Sonne / Ben Jonson
Epitaph on Elizabeth L.H. / Ben Jonson
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways / William Wordsworth
Break, Break, Break / Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night / Dylan Thomas
My Grandmother in the Stars / Naomi Shihab Nye
Catulluus' Ode to His Brother
Sweet Brother, If I Do Not Sleep / Thomas Merson
To the Memory of Arthur Greeves / C.S. Lewis
We'll Go No More A-Roving / George Gordon Lord Byron
The Soldier / Rupert Brooke
Of All THis Nuberous Progeny / John Dryden
I Think Continually of Those Who Were TRuly Great / Sir Stephen Spender
Death, Be Not Proud / John Donne
Be Ahead of All Parting / Rainer Marie Rilke
You Will Never Be Alone / William Stafford
Flesh of My Flesh / Barbara Boggs Sigmund
from Song of Myself / Walt Whitman
from A Dialogue of Self and Soul / William Butler Yeats
God's Grandeur / Gerard Manley Hopkins
from Vacillation / William Butler Yeats.