Book Reivew: Eternal Prairie

Book

Eternal Prairie: Exploring Rural Cemeteries of the West
written by Randy Adams

From the weathered, handmade crosses in prairie filed sot the ornate monuments of urban cemeteries, grave markers are personal commemorations of the loss that also represent a wealth of history, symbolism, faith, and art.

Randy Adams has spent years exploring and photographing the homesteads, small towns, churches, and cemeteries of the rural prairies. In Eternal Prairie, he looks at the social history, traditions, and significance of the huge variety of grave markers on the prairies, and the stories that surround the people, monuments, and mourners he encountered on his journey.

RANDY ADAMS is a writer and photographer with a fascination for the vanishing structures, artefacts, and fold art of the prairies. He was born and raised in Edmonton, AB, and presently resides in Nanaimo, BC.

Review

Unlike Miller's Remember Me As You Pass By (review), Adams book does cover rural cemeteries of the prairie provinces with highlights of Albert, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan burial grounds. But like Miller, he also tends to focus on the notable cemeteries and markers that he encountered in his travels.

Offering some visually stunning photographs, a headstone in the rain, and other unique markers such as wrought iron crosses in the Catholic cemetery at Prelate, SK by a local blacksmith and abandoned churches the images allows readers to see in either black 'n' white or colour, what Adams saw in his excursions.

An informative and visually appealing book that lets one see unique markers and cemeteries, Adams provides history and personal experiences with cemetery caretakers and those who erect the markers in memory of those who died.

Source: Adams, Randy. Eternal prairie : exploring rural cemeteries of the west. Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 1999.