Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous CorpsesA writer and researcher behind the bestselling Schott’s Almanac brings us a delightfully macabre collection of morbid curiosities: tales of what happened to famous people after they died. 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 crisscross 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 toward death. |
Contents
SAINTS AND SINNERSI | 4 |
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN | 44 |
JOHN MILTON | 67 |
ABRAHAM LINCOLN | 73 |
LEE HARVEY OSWALD | 105 |
BODY POLITICS | 121 |
GHE GUEVARA | 158 |
JOHN PAUL JONES | 168 |
DANTE ALIGHIERI | 174 |
FREDERICK THE GREAT | 183 |
DOROTHY PARKER | 196 |
WOLFGANG AMADEUs MOZART | 202 |
GALILEO GALILEI | 236 |
LAST WISHES | 259 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alexander Alexander’s American ashes August autopsy Becket’s Beethoven belonged Bentham Blake’s body bones Books BORN burial buried Byron Byron’s cemetery century Chaplin Church coffin coflin Columbus confirmed corpse cremated crypt Dante’s dead death Descartes died display Eddowes Einstein’s brain Elvis embalmed Evita Evita’s exhumed famous fight figures final finally find first five friends funeral Galileo Geronimo Gram Parsons grave Harvey Haydn’s head History Hitler inside James’s Jesse James Jim Thorpe John Jones’s Kelly’s King Laden’s later Laurence Sterne Lee Harvey Oswald Lenin Lincoln Livingstone London Milton Mozart’s Museum Mussolini’s Napoleon’s Ned Kelly never Nicholas office officials Oswald Paine’s Paris penis Peron phrenology Poe’s Rasputin reburied relics remains rest Rosenbaum Russian Saint scientists secret Shelley’s skeleton skull Skull and Bones Sterne’s stolen story Swedenborg’s there’s Thomas Paine Thorpe’s Timothy Leary tion tomb University Press vault Voltaire Voltaire’s wanted York