Famous eulogies
Read the ones people still quote.
A line from each, with notes on what makes it work. The point is not to borrow their words. It is to see the moves underneath them, because they are the same moves you need for yours.
Billy Crystal
His friend of forty-two years, 2016
Muhammad Ali
A comedian eulogizing perhaps the most famous athlete of the century, to a full arena and a live broadcast. He spends a good part of it doing an impression of Ali, and still says the truest thing anyone said that day.
Excerpt only. Full text under copyright.
Mona Simpson
His sister, 2011
Steve Jobs
Simpson did not meet her brother until she was an adult, and her eulogy is built from what she saw up close: how he loved, what he noticed, what he said at the very end. The small details do more work than any résumé could.
Excerpt only. Full text under copyright.
Earl Spencer
Her brother, 1997
Diana, Princess of Wales
At a funeral watched around the world, Spencer does not try to summarize Diana’s public life. He takes direct aim at the press that hounded her, then brings the room back to the person their family knew.
Excerpt only. Full text under copyright.
Frederick Douglass
Ally and critic, 1876
Abraham Lincoln
At the dedication of a monument to Lincoln, eleven years after his death, Douglass refuses to turn him into a saint. He names the limitations and contradictions first, which makes the praise that follows easier to trust.
Abraham Lincoln
President, 1863
The Union dead at Gettysburg
Four months after one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, he does not try to retell it. He gives the dead a larger meaning, then stops before he says a word too many.