I Read Odd Books

Book Title: Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America

Author: Stanley Burns, M.D.

Why I Consider This Book Odd: Contains photographs of dead people, many children, from the turn of the 19th century and while beautiful, it is somewhat morbid. If you have an aversion to such photography, give this review a skip.

Type of Book: Photography

Availability: While I am unsure if this book is considered rare, per se, it only had two editions.  Mine is from the second edition.  Clearly, the first editions are far more expensive, but the second editions are pricy as well.  One can obtain a copy of either edition if one is willing to pay between $400-$1000 USD. Had The Strand not had a copy with a damaged book jacket selling for cheap, I would not have a copy. Follow the link below to find the best selection of this book on Amazon.
Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America

Comments: This book is one of my most prized books. I waited for almost a decade to be able to afford a copy, and even after I ordered it, I bit my nails until it arrived for fear that there was some mistake and they were going to notify me that I had been undercharged.

This book examines postmortem photography from 1840-1930. A practice that may seem morbid to some, death photography was actually quite common for those who could afford it. In a time when photography was still expensive, many times these photographs of the dead would be the sole picture people would have to remember their loved one, especially if the deceased was a child.

Stanley Burns says in his preface, “Nineteenth-century Americans knew how to respond to these images. Today there is no culturally nominative response to postmortem photographs.” And that is why many of us, myself included, are awe-struck by these photographs, unable really to explain what we find so appealing about them.

Burns gives a history of each photograph in the book, when available, and at the end, has a time line not only for the history of death photography, but also for how death customs were handled in the USA since the time of the Puritans.

Though I stated above that I am unsure why this book called my name, I will make an attempt to identify the emotional response I had to one specific picture. The photograph I will reproduce under the jump is the sole property of an anonymous donor who contributed this picture to Burns’ archives, and I reproduce it to show the power of this book. (more…)