Author Talk: Sam Roberts, Are They Dead Yet? The Art of the Obit

Somebody writes your obituary before you die. Sam Roberts has been the person doing it.

Roberts is a veteran New York Times journalist and obituary writer, and the evening is about the craft of the thing: who we remember, how we forget, and where the real meaning of a life turns out to sit. He takes the audience through the strange practice of writing obituaries in advance, how America's relationship with death shifted after 9/11 and again after the pandemic, and the classic euphemisms the form has always leaned on. There is wit and a fair amount of behind-the-scenes intrigue, and a conclusion drawn from a long career spent writing about the dead: there is no such thing as an ordinary life.

He is the author of a dozen nonfiction books, among them The New Yorkers: 31 Remarkable People, 400 Years, and the Untold Biography of the World's Greatest City and A History of New York in 101 Objects.

Books on the night. The library's partner Books on the Common will have copies for sale and signing.

Good to know. In the Main Program Room. Registration is required and closes at the 7:00pm start.

Check before you go. Ridgefield Library does not publish a price for this program. Confirm the cost and registration details on the venue's event page before you plan around it.