Rest in Pieces
In the long run, we're all dead. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure. The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated and even filed away in a lawyer's office. Their fingers, teeth, toes, arms, legs, skulls, hearts, lungs and nether regions have embarked on voyages that criss-cross the globe and stretch the imagination.
Counterfeiters tried to steal Lincoln's corpse. Einstein's brain went on a cross-country road trip. And after Lord Horatio Nelson perished at Trafalgar, his sailors submerged him in brandy - which they drank. From Mozart to Hitler, Rest in Pieces connects the lives of the famous dead to the hilarious and horrifying adventures of their corpses and traces the evolution of cultural attitudes towards death.
Bess Lovejoy’s work has appeared in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Lapham’s Quarterly and elsewhere. She is a former editor at Mental Floss, SmithsonianMag.com. She has delivered talks at Death Salon, Morbid Anatomy, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Green-Wood Cemetery, and for Atlas Obscura. She is also a founding member of The Order of the Good Death. She now works as a freelance writer, researcher, and content creator specializing in the places where history, science, and curiosity meet. Find out more about her: besslovejoy.com