The Dead Toreador, by Édouard Manet, c. 1864. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

The Dead Toreador, by Édouard Manet, c. 1864. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Death

Volume VI, Number 4 | fall 2013

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"The Antiquary's Last Will and Testament" from The English Dance of Death, by Thomas Rowlandson, 1814.

Preamble

Memento Mori

By Lewis H. Lapham

Learning how to die, as Michel de Montaigne once rightly said, is the unlearning of how to be a slave.

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Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare, by Gustave Courbet. 1857.

Mournful Creatures

By Virginia Morell

Humans may be the only animals who understand our mortality, but when it comes to grieving, we are not so unique.

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Map

Departures

A million ways to die.

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Miscellany

Titus Andronicus is William Shakespeare’s bloodiest play; the body count reaches fourteen. Rounding out the top-three deadliest plays are Richard III (eleven) and King Lear (ten).

1892 | Iran

Surviving a Plague

Gertrude Bell tries to stay healthy. More

c. 1573 | Aquitaine

Living at Life’s Expense

Montaigne considers death and life.More

1863 | Gettysburg

What We Say Here

Lincoln at Gettysburg.More

Charts & Graphs

Average Life Expectancy

Will you live longer than a Founding Father or a wife of Henry VIII?

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Color photograph of Russian multimillionaire Dmitry Itskov.

Black and white photograph of John Crowley sitting on a porch.

Black and white photograph of French novelist, essayist, and playwright Albert Camus.

Fresco of Franciscan friar and traveler Giovanni da Pian del Carpine.

Color portrait of Greek poet Anacreon.

Black and white photograph of English poet and librarian Philip Larkin.

Black and white photograph of Italian-born American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

Black and white photograph of American writer James Agee.

When a man dies, and his kin are glad of it, they say, “He is better off.”

—Edgar Watson Howe, 1911

Painted portrait of Scottish philosopher David Hume.

Color photograph of American physician Jack Kevorkian.

David Hume & Jack Kevorkian

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