[Jürgen Habermas’ obituary to friend and philosopher, Richard Rorty]One small autobiographical piece by Rorty bears the title ‘Wild Orchids and Trotsky.’ In it, Rorty describes how as a youth he ambled around the blooming hillside...

[Obituary of atheist philosopher Richard Robinson]An Atheist’s Values is one of the best short accounts of liberalism (a term Robinson accepted) and humanism (a term he ignored) produced during the present century, all the more...

When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, Leo Gursky is survived by an apartment full of shit

Yet for quixotic reasons–namely, that I enjoyed writing obits–I had decided to scale back on articles about city life in order to write exclusively about the city’s dead. For even less money. It was a...

The clear awareness of having been born into a losing struggle need not lead one into despair. I do not especially like the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and...

Very few, even among those who have taken the keenest interest in the progress of the revolution in natural knowledge set afoot by the publication of the ‘Origin of Species’; and who have watched, not...

His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one science.{Gibbs’s obituary for scientist Rudolf Clausius}

I wrote something for my local newspaper, but nobody read it because it got buried in the obituary section.

I don’t care if the New York Times writes an obituary for me. I just want you to write one. … You say you’re not special because the world doesn’t know about you, but that’s...