Last writes: Give your death a little life

The obituary is alive and well.

That postmortem send-off, a final review after the inevitable fade to black, is a historical record that details the successes and failures of the famous. And, increasingly, the not-so-famous.

Interest in obits - composing our own as well as reading them and writing them for others - is growing for a variety of reasons, said Marilyn Johnson, author of "The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries" (HarperCollins, $24.95).

"A lot of it is that there are a bunch of writers who have figured out that it's a wonderful form," said Ms. Johnson, who has been a...