John F. Szabo - Mortuary Science: A Sourcebook

SCARECROW PRESS, INC.

Published in the United States of America

by Scarecrow Press, Inc.

A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.scarecrowpress.com

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Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ, England

Copyright 1993 by John F. Szabo

First paperback edition 2002

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

The hardback edition of this book was previously cataloged by the Library of Congress as follows:

Szabo, John F., 1968

Mortuary Science : a sourcebook / by John F. Szabo.

p. cm.

Includes index.

1. Undertakers and undertakingBibliography. I. Title.

Z5994.S93 1993

[RA622]

363.75dc20 93-28803

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

ISBN: 0-8108-4587-3

ISBN: 978-0-8108-4587-9

To
George John Szabo
and
Jule Patricia Canterbury Szabo

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Professor Emeritus Kenneth Vance, University of Michigan
School of Information and Library Studies, for his
encouragement and assistance in this project
and
the University of Michigan Interlibrary Loan Office and the
many libraries and institutions that provided material for
examination.

CONTENTS

Bibliographies, by Subject

FOREWORD

The primary purpose of this work is to provide educators, researchers, funeral industry management, funeral service personnel, and laypersons with a comprehensive, annotated bibliographical resource on the subjects central to the field of mortuary science. I have included only monographic works in this bibliography; to include article citations would simply be, for the most part, an attempt at indexing funeral trade journals. That is not the purpose of this work. Most periodical literature that covers mortuary science can be found in these industry and trade journals. Mortuary science literature published outside the realm of such publications generally tends to be superficial and popular in nature.

Several components factored into my selection criteria. Age and geography were of primary importance. I chose to include only those materials prepared between the years 1900 and 1991. Since mortuary science is a discipline that has not developed technologically at the pace and rapidity of other fields, the age of research material is not as significant as it might be in an area of study where the hardcover book is outdated by the time it is printed and distributed. I have noticed in my research that mortuary science texts often refer to works 40 and 50 years old, sometimes older. I chose 1900 as a start date for two reasons: it begins the century and also marks the publication of the first truly significant written contributions to modern developments in mortuary science. Pre-1900 materials generally are not as relevant to todays funeral industry. I also chose only those materials pertinent to United States mortuary practice. You may see some citations published outside of the U.S., but their contents do focus or relate in some way to American funeral practices. I made this limitation because most material is published in the U.S., it is the broadest in scope and subject matter, and the U.S. has the most elaborate and financially successful funeral industry in the world.

The headings of each section will indicate specifically what I considered to be the subjects central to mortuary science. Generally, I tried to determine if each citation was relevant to funeral directing, restorative art, cemeteries, cremation, or funeral rites. There are a small number of titles that deal chiefly with irrelevant subjects, but include what I consider to be information critical to the theme of this work. I did not include literature on burial rites, ceremonies, and mourning from world cultures. This is an entirely separate area of study, closer to the field of anthropology and cultural geography. Exceptions to this were Effie Bendanns Death Customs: An Analytical Study of Burial Rites and Habenstein and Lamers Funeral Customs the World Over. I considered both to be principal works in the field and each contained information I thought would be valuable to readers of this book.

Citations included in this text were gathered from several indexes, bibliographies in book form, notes and bibliographies that were included in the works cited, and the items themselves. For access reasons I did not annotate every title. Several titles are extremely obscure and exist in only one copy. For those that were annotated, I obtained the material from individuals, funeral home collections, the University of Michigan Libraries, the Ann Arbor Public Library, or University of Michigan interlibrary loan service. Most were obtained through the latter. With each annotation, I tried not to make valuative judgments on the titles themselves. I am not a student of mortuary science, nor do I want to appear as such. The substance of each annotation was derived from the text of the material, table of contents, introduction, preface, foreword, notes, appendices, and indexes (in that order). Special attention was given to the organization of each work as well as its applicability to funeral service personnel.

John F. Szabo

Director

Robinson Public Library

Robinson, Illinois

Adams, J. R., and D. R. Mader. Autopsy. London: Lloyd-Luke; 1976.

Dhonau, C. O. Manual of Case Analysis, 2nd ed. Cincinnati: The Embalming Book Co.; 1928.

Editors of Consumer Reports. Funerals: Consumers Last Rights. Mount Vernon, NY: Consumers Union; 1977.

Note: Subtitled The Consumers Union Report on Conventional Funerals and Burial... and Some Alternatives, Including Cremation, Direct Cremation, Direct Burial, and Body Donation. Also published by Pantheon Books, New York.

This is an educational text for consumers about funerals. It offers an overview of the American funeral discussing high costs, typical funerals, emotional factors in the funeral transaction, and alternatives to the conventional funeral. Topics also covered include: selecting a funeral director, death benefits, casket selection, embalming, extras, cemeteries, vaults, cremation, body donation, memorial societies, pre-need plans, and psychological aspects of the funeral. Appendixes are pre-need laws, active Veterans Administration National Cemeteries, embalming and restorative art procedures, embalming laws, guidelines for cremation without a funeral director, uniform donor card, autopsy procedure, transplantation, and guidelines and information for survivors.

Grollman, Earl A. Concerning Death: A Practical Guide for the Living. Boston: Beacon Press; 1974.

Grollmans book is a guide to dealing with the facts and emotions of death. The text contains 20 individually edited sections on the subject of death and funerals--intended primarily for consumers. Pertinent topics covered are: grief, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish rites, legal concerns, insurance, coroners, funeral directors, cemeteries, memorials (gravemarkers), cremation, organ donation and transplantation, sympathy calls, condolence letters, widows and widowers, suicide, and death education.