Mark Steyn's Passing Parade

Obituaries & Appreciations expanded edition

This newly expanded edition of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade looks back to the men and women who, in ways great and small, helped shape the 20th century. The Washington Post called Mark "the world's wittiest obit writer", and many others agree. "Mark Steyn is a more than brilliant writer who can't resist quipping as he appreciates," says WGN's Milt Rosenberg. "He memorializes the recently departed with startling joie de vivre." Robert Fulford, the dean of Canadian cultural critics, praised Mark in The National Post for "writing brilliant obituaries", while The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last declared that "I'll be surprised if I read a better essay this year than this beautiful, funny, sad Mark Steyn entry on Sid Luft."

So here by special request are Luft, Artie Shaw, Ronald Reagan, the Reverend Canaan Banana, and a gaggle of other towering figures, scurvy lowlifes and all points in between. You'll find Steyn's take on Tupac Shakur, Idi Amin, the Princess of Wales, Bob Hope, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Artie Shaw and Pope John Paul II - plus Scotty from Star Trek, Nixon's secretary and Gershwin's girlfriend. It's the passing parade of our times, from presidents and prime ministers to the guy who invented Cool Whip. As Hugh Hewitt says, "If you have a very good friend, send them Steyn's Passing Parade."