Description
MJF Books, Published 2004. Paperback, 288 pp.; 24 x 12 cm; special edition published by arrangement with Gibbs Smith, full number line; illustrated throughout with color photographs, map endpapers.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
Turn the pages with the arrows, keyboard, or a swipe.
Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition. Stiff pictorial covers, front with color photograph of a carved Masonic gravestone and three inset photographs repeated on rear cover. Mild shelf and edge wear. Binding tight. Endpapers printed with a nineteenth-century map of Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh. Pages clean and unmarked. [From back cover] "A bird in flight. A hand pointing upward. A six-pointed star. Engraved, carved, or sculpted, the images on tombstones, grave markers, and mausoleums tell stories about the people they memorialize and the world they lived in. . . . Stories in Stone is the first comprehensive guide to cemetery imagery and iconography. Gloriously illustrated with hundreds of stunning color photos, it decodes the meaning of more than three hundred fifty symbols and signs." Written and photographed by Douglas Keister, author of the "Tomb of the Month" column for American Cemetery Magazine. Photographs range across American and European cemeteries, including Green-Wood in Brooklyn, Woodlawn in the Bronx, Metairie in New Orleans, Highgate in London and San Michele in Venice, with many California examples from Colma, Oakland and Red Bluff. Also includes a list of acronyms of fraternal societies, clubs and organizations found on gravestones, and a gallery of unusual monuments. Contents: Preface; Introduction; Funerary Architecture: Designed for Eternity; Stone Sentinels: Designed for Remembrance (Flora; Fauna; The Human Condition; Mortality Symbols; Religious Devotion; Secret Societies, Clubs, and Fraternal Organizations; Final Impressions); Suggestions for Further Reading; Index.