Kirjahaku

The Journal Keeper is the openhearted and unflinchingly honest memoir of six years in writer Phyllis Theroux's life. As she ages into her sixties, Theroux uses regular journal entries to reflect on the void left by the passing of her remarkable mother and the thrill of allowing a new source of joy into her life. A natural storyteller, Theroux slips her arm companionably into yours, like an old friend going for a stroll. But Theroux's stride is long and her eye sharp, and she swings easily between subjects that occupy us all: love, loneliness, growing old, financial worries, spiritual growth, and caring for an aging parent. A compelling tale in journal form, The Journal Keeper is a rich feast from the writing life -- with an unexpected twist. After the death of her mother leaves Theroux feeling adrift, she finds the love that she believed was closed to a woman of her age. Not until Theroux sat down to edit her journals for publication did she realize, in her words, "that a hand much larger and more knowing than my own was guiding my life and pen across the page." She makes a good case for this being true for us all.

This invaluable anthology is the first and only collection dedicated to the art of the eulogy. For the past several years, Phyllis Theroux has collected the most eloquent and moving writing commemorating a death, assessing a life, or offering solace to the bereaved. Ranging from Thomas Jefferson's magisterial eulogy for George Washington to Anna Quindlen's affectionate memorial for her grandmother; from Helen Keller's words about her dear friend Mark Twain to Adlai Stevenson's about Eleanor Roosevelt, The Book of Eulogies establishes that great eulogies are a celebration of remarkable lives that can illuminate, confirm, inspire, and redirect our own. Theroux has included some of the world's most well-known tributes, such as Pericles' Funeral Oration, Jules Michelet's appreciation of Jeanne d'Arc, Victor Hugo's ringing words on the one hundredth anniversary of Voltaire's death, Cardinal Suenens's eulogy for Pope John XXIII. But most of the eulogized assembled here are eighteenth- to twentieth-century Americans, and the stories of their lives illuminate our history with a particularly intimate light. In Robert Kennedy's extemporaneous remarks upon hearing of the death of Martin Luther King, or Eugene McCarthy's tribute to his friend and colleague, Hubert Humphrey, the values, wisdom, and spirit of both the eulogized and the eulogizer are revealed. The Book of Eulogies is a sourcebook for anyone who must find words of solace, understanding, and inspiration on the occasion of a beloved's death. It is also a treasury of astonishing eloquence, passion, and humanity -- a record of extraordinary lives, seen through the eyes of those who knew and loved them.