Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries

A lively tour through the history of US cemeteries that explores how, where, & why we bury our dead The summer before his senior year in college, Melville worked at the cemetery in his hometown, & thanks to hour upon hour of pushing a mower over the grassy acres, he came to realize what a rich story the place told of his town & its history. Thus was born Melville's lifelong curiosity with how, where, & why we bury and commemorate our dead. Melville's Over My Dead Body is a lively (pun intended) & wide-ranging history of cemeteries, places that have mirrored the passing eras in history but also have shaped it. Cemeteries have given birth to landscape architecture & famous parks, as well as influenced architectural styles. They've inspired & motivated some of our greatest poets & authors-Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson. They've been used as political tools to shift the country's discourse & as important symbols of the U.S.' ambition & reach. But they are changing & fading. Embalming & burial is incredibly toxic, & while cremations have just recently surpassed burials in popularity, they're not great for the environment either. The book explores everything-history, sustainability, land use, and more-& what it really means to memorialize. Locales visited: Shawsheen Cemetery - Bedford, MS The 1607 Burial Ground - Historic Jamestowne, VI Burial Hill - Plymouth, MS Colonial Jewish Burial Ground - Newport, RI Monticello's African American Graveyard - Charlottesville, VI Mount Auburn Cemetery - Cambridge, MS Green-Wood Cemetery - Brooklyn, NYk Laurel Grove Cemetery - Savannah, Georgia Sleepy Hollow Cemetery - Concord, Massachusetts Central Park - New York, NY Gettysburg National Cemetery - Gettysburg, PA Arlington National Cemetery - Arlington, VI Woodlawn Cemetery - Bronx, NY Boothill Graveyard - Tombhill, AZ Forest Lawn Memorial-Park - Glenwood, CA The Chapel of the Chimes - Oakland, CA Hollywood Forever Cemetery - Los An