Dead Lines: Slices of Life from the Obit Beat
Sometimes an obituary is more than a funeral notice. It can also be a summary of an interesting life. The Wisconsin State Journal’s George Hesselberg wrote many obits during his long career and collects several of those reflective essays in Dead Lines. He wrote with respect of a homeless eccentric who carried all her possessions in her coat pockets, the water meter repairman who dressed in his best suit before committing suicide, the semi-professional concert violinist who taped 500 reels of music broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio—even of the corpse discovered in the chimney of an old building and the polar bear put down after he mauled the guy who entered his pen at the zoo. Hesselberg wrote with an acute awareness of the value of the creatures who were his subjects.
