LITERATURE & ARTS:

• "As I Was Dying: An Examination of Classic Literature and Dying"

• By Roger C. Bone, M.D., published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol 124, Issue 12, Pages 1091-93 (06/15/1996)
  
• Sources: Dr. Bone, in preparing this essay, examined the following classics: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Little Women, On the Death of a Young Lady, As I Lay Dying, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, Our Town, Walden, "Nature", Critique of Pure Reason, Meditations, Origin of the Species, Nicomachean Ethics, Age of Reason, A Tale of Two Cities, The Divine Comedy, Faust, War and Peace, Far From the Madding Crowd, Fathers and Sons, Anna Karenina, The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, "How We Think", "Self-Reliance," The World as Will and Idea, The Cherry Orchard, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Great Expectations, Camille, The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, Madame Bovary, The Idylls of the King, Middlemarch, and Silas Marner.

• Death Be Not Proud

• By John Donne (1572-1631).
• Sample: "DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so, / For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow, / Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me."

• Death Be Not Proud
  

• By John Gunther.
• Synopsis: Gunther explores the process of death: discovery, fighting, living on, and then dying. The process becomes just a little bit easier, as humor, human kindness and courage all are woven in. More than just about dying, this memoir becomes a study of living.

• [A] Death in the Desert:

• By Willa Cather (1875-1947).
  

• Sample: "He knew that she lived upon this and that her disease fed upon it; that it sent shudders of remembrance through her and that in the exhaustion which followed this turmoil of her dying senses, she slept deep and sweet and dreamed of youth and art and days in a certain old Florentine garden, and not of bitterness and death."

• Death is a Dialogue
  

• By Emily Dickinson (1830-1886).
  
• Sample: "Death is a dialogue between / The spirit and the dust. / "Dissolve," says Death. The Spirit, "Sir, / I have another trust."

• [A] Mother's Lament for the Death of Her Son

• By Robert Burns (1759-1796).
  
• Sample: "Fate gave the word, the arrow sped, / And pierc'd my darling's heart; / And with him all the joys are fled / Life can to me impart."

• Philosophical Thinking about Death and Dying:

• By Vincent Barry, Prof. of Philosophy, Bakersfield College (2006).
• Synopsis: "Plainly written, with timely illustrations and references, [this book] introduces students to all the major metaphysical and ethical issues concerning death and dying. What exactly is death? What are the implications of knowing that we will die? Is death bad and the fear of it rational? Does life continue after bodily death? Does parapsychological research support life after death? How much control should we have over our own deaths? Can we ever have a duty to die? What's the relation between death and life? Such questions are organized around three themes: the nature of death, life after death, and voluntary death. * * * [T]he text's twelve trim chapters provide students a concise and sturdy guide to the basic problems of both the nature of death and end-of-life decisions."

• Studies of Suicide in Literature

• Synopsis: Some of the world's greatest writers have written about suicide in their novels, plays, and/or poems; but what does suicide mean in literature? How does it affect the characters, the plot, the conflicts, and the eventual conclusion? With these novels, you'll discover studies of suicide in literature.

• Taking Leave...in Literature

• Synopsis: Literature doesn't always have happy endings ... sometimes the stories end in death, or in some other loss.

• Wisdom of the World:

• Mission: An innovative life-enhancing media production company that creates and distributes resources
  designed to deepen and enhance emotional and spiritual intelligence throughout the transitions of life
• Resource: "Graceful Passages: A Companion for Living & Dying" (book with music on 2 CDs).