The New York Times 2012 Obits with William McDonald

Listen to the interview.

It was fascinating to speak with William McDonald,   the obituaries editor at The New York Times about  300 of the best New York Times obituaries from the last year.  THE OBITS: THE NEW YORK TIMES ANNUAL 2012, a “who’s who” of some of the most fascinating people of the last century. It’s amazing to look at the lives of the people  who made headlines and shaped history but have nothing  more in common than  death.

We lost icons like Elizabeth Taylor and enemies  like Osama Bin Laden, and then we lost those who were never household names yet their work touched millions, like biomedical researchers Eugene Goldwasser and Baruch Blumberg, or blazed trails for future generations, like Violet Cowden, one of the first female Air Force pilots during World War II. There are also “average” people whose obituaries read like novels, such as Manfred Gans,  a British soldier who made his way through German-held territory to find his parents in a concentration camp.

I can’t put this one down. I highly recommend THE OBITS: THE NEW YORK TIMES ANNUAL 2012,