Round-Trip to Deadsville: a Year in the Funeral Underground by Matson, Tim - 2000

White River Jct, Vermont, U. S. A.: Chelsea Green Pub Co. New in New dust jacket. 2000. First Edition. Hardcover. Our narrator, Tim Matson, assaulted by middle-aged existential doubt and morbid preoccupation, sets out to confront the demons of death and the denizens of the funeral trade. His odyssey begins when he stares down a photograph of Ginseng Willard, a flinty old Vermonter who built his own coffin from a piano case, then used it as a bed for the rest of his natural days. Matson decides to build a coffin. He heads out on the road to learn how to go about it. Along the way he meets an unforgettable cabal of characters who populate the funeral underground - among them the Undertaker, the Anatomist and the Astrologer. This book offers thrills, chills, and laughter, but also a face-to-face encounter with some of life's Big Questions. ; 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall .