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April 2023
1min read

The old-fashioned epitaph, a literary form all its own, runs to both conscious and unconscious humor, as this little sampling bears lasting witness. The inscriptions come from a number of sources, but we acknowledge the special help of Peter Beilenson of the Peter Pauper Press in collecting them.

We hope you enjoy our work.

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Stories published from "April 1958"

Authored by: The Editors

The white man made certain his imported thoroughbred could outrun the red man’s pony, but the Indian chief was wise in the gambler’s ways

Authored by: Walter Lord

“Why Oh! Why should death’s darts reach the young and brilliant —”

Authored by: William Harlan Hale

Japan’s feudal, shut-in history suddenly came to an end when the bluff American commodore dropped anchor in Tokyo Bay

Authored by: Merlo J. Pusey

Did the President, as he claimed, lose a battle but win a war in his attempt to pack the Supreme Court? Historical perspective suggests another answer

In the misty memories of six centenarians recorded in 1864, the great war lives again

Authored by: Arnold Welles

Young Samuel Slater smuggled a cotton mill out of England—in his head—and helped start America’s Industrial Revolution

Authored by: Ray Allen Billington

A distinguished historian finds that after 65 years Frederick Jackson Turner’s disputed “frontier theory” is still a valid key to understanding modern America

Authored by: George F. Scheer

Around Francis Marion there has sprung up an overgrowth of legend as tangled as the swamps he fought in. Here is an authoritative account of his role in the Revolution

Authored by: Lydel Sims

The Confederates’ Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy warship, but her crude design made her a coffin for her crew

Authored by: The Editors

Homely sentiment and crude humor—in delightful covers—helped soothe the mid-nineteenth-century breast

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