
Last Writes
A Daybook for a Dying Friend
Laurel Richardson(Author)
Left Coast Press Inc
1st Edition
Published on 31. August 2007
Book
Hardback
176 pages
978-1-59874-186-5 (ISBN)
Description
Betty Frankel Kirschner succumbed to emphysema one day in June. She had been a long-term professor at Kent State University, founding member of the feminist caucus in sociology, a political activist, a chain smoker. Close friend Laurel Richardson, a key figure in literary turn in ethnographic writing, kept a daybook, relating their conversations and interactions over Betty's last few months. Rich in memory, emotion, dreams, and life-and-death decisions, the daybook chronicles the ups and down of a terminally ill woman and the impact that illness has on friends, colleagues, and family alike. Richardson also grapples with the ethics of writing deeply personal narratives. Part memoir, part sociological analysis, part eulogy to a departed friend, Richardson opens a poignant window into living an academic life, and ending it.
Reviews / Votes
'Last Writes is a beautiful, comforting, and unflinchingly honest portrayal of the intricacies of long term friendship between two women, one dying, both giving and taking care. Though caregiving a friend is and will be a part of most of our lives, published stories about these relationships are all too rare. Laurel Richardson once again has opened a new space for autoethnographic and intimate scholarship as she invites readers into her inner, relational, and sociological experience of friendship, dying, and personal writing. Last Writes gave me a greater appreciation of the obligations and rewards of deep friendship, the meanings of giving and receiving, and the intensely personal ethics of writing first-person accounts. I will use this in my classes-qualitative methods, autoethnography, emotions, communicating grief and loss-and give copies to all my friends. This story is a literary and sociological gift to us all.' Carolyn Ellis, University of South FloridaMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Walnut Creek
United States
Illustrations
illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
490 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59874-186-5 (9781598741865)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2016
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

E-Book
07/2016
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

Book
08/2007
1st Edition
Left Coast Press Inc
€69.51
Article not available at the moment
Person
Laurel Richardson is Professor Emeritus of Sociology from Ohio State University. She specializes in qualitative methodology, gender, symbolic interactionism, the sociology of knowledge and arts-based research. She served as co-editor of the Feminist Frontiers series and has authored six books, including Cooley Award-winner Fields of Play (Rutgers), Writing Strategies (Sage), The New Other Woman (Free Press), and Travels with Ernest (AltaMira).
Content
Chapter 1 October; Chapter 2 November; Chapter 3 December; Chapter 4 January; Chapter 5 February; Chapter 6 March; Chapter 7 April; Chapter 8 May; Chapter 9 June; Chapter 10 July; Chapter 11 Afterword;