Almost every tourist destination has a graveyard. You go to Yosemite National Park: there’s a graveyard. On Maui: graveyards everywhere you look. The Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park: both graveyards. The #1 tourist destination in Michigan has three cemeteries. America’s best-preserved Gold Rush ghost town has five. Gettysburg is a National Park because it has a graveyard. Some graveyards are even tourist destinations in themselves: the Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague, the colonial burying grounds of Boston, and Arlington National Cemetery, site of John F. Kennedy’s eternal flame. Jim Morrison’s grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery ranks in the top five tourist sites of Paris.
Part travel memoir, part cemetery history, Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel contains 35 graveyard travel essays and visits more than 50 cemeteries, churchyards, and gravesites across the globe.
Originally published by Western Legends Press, this updated edition came out from Automatism Press in July 2017.
Praise for Wish You Were Here:
“Lovingly researched and lushly described, Loren’s essays transport you to the graveyard, where she is quite a tour guide. Curiosity and compassion burn at the heart of these essays.” — Paula Guran, editor of Dark Echo magazine
“Rhoads is particularly adept at finding deeper meanings in what she sees. The questions she puts to the reader about the places she visits can gently guide us in our own search for meaning in the places we encounter. If you’ve struggled to explain your love of burial grounds to others, this may be a great way to help them understand.” — LisaMary Wichowski, The Association of Graveyard Rabbits Online Journal
“Loren Rhoads started visiting cemeteries by accident. It was the start of a love affair with cemeteries that continues to this day. In Wish You Were Here, Rhoads blends history with storytelling. Her photos accompany each essay.” — American Cemetery magazine
“Wish You Were Here captures well why many of us find cemeteries fascinating: because of the history and stories of so many interesting people buried there!” — Richard Waterhouse, Waterhouse Symbolism Newsletter
“‘It’s good to be a card-carrying member of the Association for Gravestone Studies,’ Loren writes. I agree. After half a lifetime of guided and self-guided tours, Loren observes, ‘What I’ve learned from cemeteries is that limestone melts, marble breaks, slate slivers, and sandstone cracks.’ That is exactly what draws some of us to graveyards.” — Christine Quigley, Quigley’s Cabinet
Ordering information:
The 2nd edition of Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel is available in paperback and ebook directly from Amazon and Barnes & Noble or as an ebook from Smashwords.
Autographed and inscribed copies can be ordered directly from me. For details or to request inscriptions, use this contact form:
The book trailer for the first edition of Wish You Were Here:
