nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The fear of death, the pain of bereavement, the art of consolation, and the custom of mourning--these are experiences with which all mortals must reckon.nbsp; In The Grim Reader, editors Maura Spiegel and Richard Tristman have gathered the best classic and contemporary writing on mortality--from Montaigne to Monty Python--to produce an essential resource for the heart and mind. These idiosyncratic and always enlightening pieces are grouped into thematic parts in which a diversity of perspective on death are revealed.nbsp; From death in its most personal sphere to the major issues of death in the public realm, The Grim Reader offers a fresh and unmediated encounter with mortality and the many dimensions of grief and recovery. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;A compelling collection of poems, fiction, letters, historical documents, essays, and narrations from a wide variety of writers, including: Vladimir Nabokov- John Ashbery- Samuel Beckett Adam Smith- Simone de Beauvoir- Grace Paley Giovanni Boccaccio- Bertolt Brecht- Roland Barthes James Baldwin- Primo Levi- Anne Sexton Luis Buñuel- Paul Monette- Jessica Mitford- Stanley Elkin nbsp;