Obituaries

An interview with a professional obit writer

“Eileen Sheridan” (1951). Via The New York Times, Smith Archive, and Alamy

When I buy a newspaper in print, I often read the obituaries first. It’s nothing macabre, though maybe it’s odd, I just find it a gentler path into the news. Though I’m sure I’ll get to a point where I’m mostly reading about people my age dying, and that’s hard, but for now that r…