A good obituary is a thing of beauty. With "the sweeping drama of a life packed into a few inches of print," an obit aims to give each one of us the sendoff we deserve. But not always, and that's where Mo Rocca comes in.
In Mobituaries, a companion to the podcast of the same name, Rocca shares "mobits" for people who didn't quite get their due initially. Consider Beau Brummell, who almost single-handedly changed men's fashion, but suffered from syphilis-induced dementia at the end and died penniless. Vaughn Meader's impersonation of John F. Kennedy earned him a bestselling comedy album, but his career ended the day Kennedy was assassinated. Rocca looks at forgotten forerunners like Bessie Coleman, the first African American and Native American woman to earn a pilot's license, and Ada Lovelace, who wrote the first algorithm based on an early prototype for a computer--in 1843!
Equally intriguing are those whose accomplishments were overshadowed by their faults. Herbert Hoover will forever be remembered for presiding over the beginning of the Great Depression, not for his international famine relief efforts, including saving Belgians from starvation during World War I as a private citizen. And Founding Father Thomas Paine, author of the influential Common Sense, whose radicalism and belligerence tarnished his reputation so badly that just six mourners attended his funeral.
Delightfully, mobits aren't limited to people. The death of homosexuality as a mental illness (1952-1973), the death of the station wagon (1949-2011) and the death (murder, really) of two beloved Southern live oak trees on the Auburn University campus (1937-2013) are interesting reads. With wit, exuberance and a touch of mischievousness, Mobituaries provides fascinating facts for all ages. --Frank Brasile, librarian