Introduction: "It is when faced with death that we turn most bookish"
"I never saw or heard the car coming": my close call with death
"Death itself is a wonderful and positive experience": Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and The wheel of life
"With autobiography there's always another text, a countertext": Philip Roth and Patrimony
"Death confers a certain beauty on one's hours": Harold Brodkey and This wild darkness
"I have never been tempted to write about my own life": Susan Sontag, David Rieff, and Swimming in a sea of death
"Sleeplessness for me is a cherished state": Edward W. Said and Out of place
"There is more than one sort of luck": Tony Judt and The memory chalet
"I never realized dying could be so much fun": Art Buchwald and Too soon to say goodbye
"Learn how to live, and you'll know how to die": Morrie Schwartz's Letting go and Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie
"I'm dying and I'm having fun": Randy Pausch and The last lecture
"Now I cultivate the art of simmering memories": Jean-Dominique Bauby and The diving bell and The butterfly
"I live in my suffering and that makes me happy": Roland Barthes and Mourning diary
Conclusion: "alive when they died".
