Gravestones of early New England, and the men who made them, 1653-1800

by Harriette Merrifield Forbes

Riverside Press Limited Edition of "Seven hundred and eighty copies of this First Edtion, of which seven hundred and fifty are for sale." Frontispiece is of the 1703 gravestone of John Cleverly, Quincy. This volume deals with the history and symbolism of early gravestones and contains black & white photos throughout. Several stone artists have been researched and included in the text. An historic and fascinating volume.

141 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Gaja · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was SO EXCITED when I got this book, but, alas, it was just kind of okay. The photos weren't great (but considering it's apparently a book from 1927, they aren't going to be amazing, high res digital images or anything) and they way they were laid out in the book was maddening. Nothing was ever even close to the page that it was talked about on, and they weren't even in order through the book. You'd have several in a row that were one after another, then all the sudden the next one would be fifty pages later. Then there were several times where a gravestone was talked about in a 'look at how the carver did these details and the shape of his letters' etc etc, and that gravestone wouldn't even be in the book. How can I admire those swank borders if they aren't in there?

Ah well. It was still a nice book to flip through. Yay gravestones.

[Alicia Primer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is itself a historical artifact. Fascinating but lack of organization was maddening.