Comic Epitaphs from the Very Best Old Graveyards

by Henry R. Martin (Illustrator)

This Informative Comic Epitaphs From The Very Best Old Graveyards is interesting.

Genres: Humor, Poetry, Nonfiction, Death, History, Adult

61 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Jakob J. 🎃]

This tattered, brittle graveside companion from 1956 I salvaged from God knows what antiquarian shelf nearly crumbled to dust as I read it.

As flakes from a long-ago water-damaged jacket cover floated down on my knees with every page turn, a tucked away bookmark appeared on page fifty-six, imploring Please Hold until Car is Delivered. I suppose that car was never delivered, and the holder of this ticket went to their grave having never received car, nor finishing this book.

I was amused by a few grim and clever turns-of-phrase…

*On a Dentist:
STRANGER, TREAD
THIS GROUND WITH GRAVITY:
DENTIST BROWN IS FILLING
HIS LAST CAVITY

*ON THE 22nd OF JUNE
JONATHAN FIDDLE
WENT OUT OF TUNE

*On a Coroner, who hanged himself:
HE LIVED
AND DIED
BY SUICIDE

…outright cruel idiomatic grave-dancing…

*POORLY LIVED
AND POORLY DIED
POORLY BURIED
AND NO ONE CRIED

*STRANGER CALL THIS NOT
A PLACE OF GLOOM:
TO ME IT IS A PLEASANT SPOT
MY HUSBAND’S TOMB

*STRANGER REJOICE:
THIS TOMB HOLDS
ARABELLA YOUNG
WHO ON THE 5th OF MAY
BEGAN TO HOLD HER TONGUE

…and dismayed by dire and grisly inscriptions of early life death:

*SINCE I HAVE BEEN SO QUICKLY DONE FOR,
I WONDER WHAT I WAS
BEGUN FOR

*DEATH HAS TAKEN
LITTLE JERRY
SON OF JOSEPH AND SERENA
HOWELLS:
SEVEN DAYS HE WRESTLED
WITH THE DYSENTERY
THEN HE PERISHED IN HIS
LITTLE BOWELS

While it is certain that some of these engravings are embellished, morbid humor has been present for as long as perception of Death itself, the oldest comic of tragedy.

[clumsyplankton]

Pretty interesting, some were funny

[Huguette Larochelle]

the shortest book i ever read.
a 30 minutes .

[Sue-Leigh]

A 61 page quick read, only a couple were found to be amusing really.

[Reagan]

I read this book when I was little at my grandparents’ house and today I found it again, so I read it quickly. There were a couple that made me chuckle, but it was okay. For nostalgia’s sake, it was okay to read. 😂

[Susan H]

This book of epitaphs from old graveyards is a super fast read. Interesting how some are brief stories, puns, and disparaging poems of marital unhappiness! LOL I guess it’s one way of getting the last word.

[Michelle]

Some of the epitaphs are funny, but many are not. The misogyny is strong with this one, both in the epitaphs and in the selection. You can tell many were written in the 1800s and curated in the 1950s. That said, I still enjoyed reading it, and a few of them made me laugh out loud.

[Marilyn]

A short series of (mostly) apocryphal epitaphs, some of which are funny, some of which are let's say, old-fashioned (book published 1957). Very appealing cover and illustration.

Fun to dip into time to time. In a way, for fans of Eward Gorey.

[Laura]

Cute find from a library sale. Elicited a few giggles.

[Jess]

The cover illustrations are better than the jokes.

[Alicia]

A lot of these are about nagging wives.

[Deb]

Very few were funny. Most were bland or just mean, but not even in a clever way. Mean humor still needs to be funny.

[Emily Adams]

Fun book to read this time of year (Halloween).

[Maggie]

Reminds me of a fortune cookie I got once. "Some think you funny, others not."

[BLDinMT]

Just something random that crossed my path at the library...

[Kelly Chester]

Very comical

[Castro]

*2.75 stars

[Julianne]

Loved the pettiness in the gravestones. Makes me want to someday have a clever epitaph.

[Speckeh]

Cute. Some of them are funny while others are more serious. Like someone said in the reviews, a lot of these poems are made up or altered to rhyme but they're amusing nonetheless!! It's a comedy poetry book and I chuckled several times. I'm charmed. Wish they were 100% accurate though.

[Thomas Zimmerman]

Just a sampling:

DEATH HAS TAKEN
LITTLE JERRY
SON OF JOSEPH AND SERNA
HOWELLS :
SEVEN DAYS HE WRESTLED
WITH THE DYSENTERY
THEN HE PERISHED IN HIS BOWELS.

And:

WILBUR GUTTMAN
AND HIS WIFE
THIER WARFARE IS
ACCOMPLISHED

Another:

BENEATH THIS STONE
OUR BABY LIES
HE NEITHER CRIES
NOR HOLLERS:
HE LIVED ON EARTH
JUST TWENTY DAYS
AND COST US FORTY DOLLARS

From the old west section:

HE CALLED
BILL SMITH
A LIAR

One more:

HERE LIES ONE
BLOWN OUT OF BREATH
WHO LIVED A MERRY LIFE
AND DIED A MERIDETH

[elstaffe]

Cute but not as funny as I hoped, probably because of the disclaimer at the beginning that noted that "Most of the items are genuine, but many are suspect, and a few are frankly contrived. In some cases genuine inscriptions have been somewhat altered; and the place names are not reliable" (3). Would've enjoyed this book much more if it was limited to real epitaphs (although I suppose it would've been much shorter).

[Sara]

I've had this book since the 1990's. I love it. Short and sweet and funny.

[Lenka]

Some people are hilarious even after death!

[Sara]

Some of these were pretty darned funny. I especially liked the ones that used other people's tombstones for advertising. Classy!

[Jen]

Meh. I liked the cover and graphics better than the writing. Disclaimer at the beginning said some were made up, took the fun out of it.

[Metagion]

Not bad, but some of these I've seen before. Cute, though.