Books to Start Your Cemetery Library (or just Cemetery Books)

Allison C. Meier, 2023

Meier is so deeply knowledgeable about graves, from the earliest human burials in Israel and Kenya to the Covid burials on New York's Hart Island. She brings the dead to life. This is a fascinating book, full of information that would make for lively party conversation. Highly recommended.

Greg Melville, 2022

This is one of the first cemetery books I've read that speaks honestly about the political nature of cemeteries. Whether it's the enslaved persons' cemetery at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello (and its modern prohibition against Jefferson's Black descendants being buried in the family plot) or the racism endured by the Chinese immigrants who built the West, Melville approaches some of the darker aspects of American history with what seems to be an appropriate amount of rage. I found that refreshing.

Terry Hamburg, 2024

Terry’s Hamburg’s Land of the Dead provides shattering context for San Francisco’s removal of its cemeteries: the “greatest mass removal of the dead in human history.” Required reading for anyone curious about California history or the 2000-mile-long graveyard that was the overland path to the west.