American Family Resource Center

Farewell, Godspeed: The Greatest Eulogies of Our Time

List Price: $18.95 Price: $14.78 You Save: $4.17 (22%)

Farewell, Godspeed is a remarkable collection of eulogies for some of the most notable figures of our time, delivered by the people who knew them best. In the words used to eulogize the great and celebrated men and women of the world—sometimes reverential, sometimes funny, always poignant—we come as close as perhaps we ever will to seeing the warm humanity beneath their public personas.

Cyrus M. Copeland has gathered some of the greatest of these writings about artists, scientists, authors, public servants, entertainers, and others who have captured our attention by making the world a better, or at least a livelier, place. Here is Andy Warhol’s close friend describing Warhol’s hidden spirituality. Albert Einstein’s assistant recounting his humanism. Edward Kennedy remembering with a brother’s tenderness the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Larry McMurtry’s lively and loving tribute to Irving “Swifty” Lazar. And Robert Bernstein, longtime publisher and friend of Dr. Seuss, memorializing him with special, never-before-published verse. Also included are the eulogies of the Challenger astronauts by President Ronald Reagan; Charles Schulz by Cathy Guisewite (creator of the comic strip Cathy); Bette Davis by James Woods; Bob Fosse by Neil Simon; Lucille Ball by Diane Sawyer; Martin Luther King Jr. by Benjamin E. Mays; David O. Selznick by Truman Capote; Karl Marx by Friedrich Engels; and Gianni Versace by Madonna.

In these moving and personal tributes we see at last the vulnerabilities and nuances of character that are often hidden from the spotlight, and the true personalities behind the names we remember. Read more...

Tear the Fences Down

List Price: $13.98 Price: $15.07

Following up 2009's much-loved, Here Anonymous, that most notably contained the tune, Two Can Play, featuring Nikki Monninger of the Silversun Pickups, Eulogies third full-length album is penned by band guitarist/vocalist Peter Walker and dedicated to Pablo Castelaz, the son of Dangerbird label head, Jeff Castelaz who passed away in 2009 from a rare form of cancer. Read more...

Remembrances and Celebrations: A Book of Eulogies, Elegies, Letters, and Epitaphs

List Price: $18.00 Price: $18.00

This rich anthology of memorial tributes serves as a welcome reminder that, although words cannot necessarily assuage grief, they can provide tremendous comfort and perspective during our times of loss. The likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Benjamin Franklin, W.H. Auden and Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as ordinary folk from the seventeenth century to the present are mourned and celebrated in the memorable eulogies, condolence letters, poems and epitaphs collected in these pages.

New to the paperback edition are eulogies of writer Andre Dubus, by his son Andre Dubus III, and of John F. Kennedy, Jr., by his uncle Edward M. Kennedy. Read more...

Finding the right words at a time of loss can understandably cause a eulogist much angst and apprehension. How does one commemorate and honor a person whose life feels like a miracle and whose passing still feels incomprehensible? Fortunately, this book of eulogies can offer guidance as well as inspiration for the bereaved. For example, Wallace Stegner writes a specific yet universal memory to his mother Hilda: "I have a clear mental image of your pursed lips and your crinkling eyes, and I know that nothing I can say will persuade you that I was ever less than you thought me."

Included here are the wrenchingly beautiful eulogies to great loves, including Lillian Hellman's final words to the love of her life, Dashiell Hammett, and Henry Miller's tribute to his legendary lover, Anaïs Nin. And it must have been with bottomless sorrow that Edward Kennedy mustered his tender and deeply personal tribute to his second slain brother, Robert Kennedy. These are all heartfelt and eloquent words, certain to comfort and aid the eulogist. --Gail Hudson Read more...

Tear The Fences Down [+Digital Booklet]