The Dead Beat

“What a wonderful surprise—a charming, lyrical book about the men and women who write obituaries . . . sly, droll, and completely winning.” —David Halberstam, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Where can readers celebrate the life of the pharmacist who moonlighted as a spy, the genius behind Sea Monkeys, the school lunch lady who spent her evenings as a ballroom hostess? The obituary page, of course. Enthralled by these fascinating former lives, Marilyn Johnson tumbled into the little known world of