The History of Obituaries

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The New York Times' obituary section is considered one of the most boring sections of any daily paper. It's charged with taking subjects from the cradle John Doe was born on January 1, 1900 to the grave. Obits turn out to be the most purely narrative genre in any daily newspaper. The reason we have these great leads, as we call them at the end, is that we are exploiting very happily this inherent narrative potential that is a news of it.

The stereotypical obituary is a formulaic recitation of facts — dry, boring, and without craft. But Margalit Fox has shown the genre can produce some of the most memorable and moving stories in journalism. Exploiting its “pure narrative arc,” Fox has penned over 1,200 obituaries, covering well-known and obscure subjects with equal aplomb.

In her conversation with Tyler Cowen, Fox reveals not only the process for writing an obituary, but her thoughts on life, death, storytelling, puzzle-solving, her favorite cellist, and how it came to be that an economist sang opera 86 times at the Met.

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