by William B. Brahms (Author) Last Words of Notable People is a comprehensive reference work on "last words," "dying words" or "famous last words". A work of unprecedented scope and study...Covering the final utterances of noted people over the span of thousands of years and the entire globe; each person is presented with a relevant biographical treatment. Each entry is meticulously documented, citing best sources available. Connection or relation of cited sources to entries are presented. Accuracy or veracity of reputed "last words" is often questioned. Conflicting variations of reported "last words" for many entries are presented for the purpose of further research. Contains a detailed selected annotated bibliography of significant "last word" sources. Well indexed.The conclusion of more than a dozen years work and consultation of tens of thousands of sources, Last Words of Notable People is far and away the definitive compilation and treatment of recorded "last words" compiled to date. This is the soft cover book edition of the last words tome featured in John Green's "Dying Declarations" video. Last Words of Notable People was an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller in December 2011. For: Trivia Lovers, Biography and History Buffs, Nerdfighters, Academic and Public Library Reference Collections and Library Circulating collections Front Jacket William B. Brahms began accumulating information on "lasts" in 1992 as a graduate library student at Rutgers University. While reviewing core reference sources in a reference class, the topic of notable "firsts" was discussed and an excellent encyclopedic resource was demonstrated. This prompted him to ask: Where would one go to look up famous or notable "lasts?" When his question yielded nothing definitive, the idea (or rather the need) for an extensive basic reference work on "lasts" was born. Widely reviewed and highly recommended, Notable Last Facts, published in 2005 has become a core reference work in thousands of libraries and research centers. While researching "last facts," Brahms began to come across many "last words" of people. When he saw the variety of versions reported and few sourced quotations, he began to collect these too. Many Internet lists and books have endeavored to collect "last words," however these works almost exclusively do not cite historic or vetted sources for the majority of the quotations and many of the "reputed" last words are doubtful, misquoted, or clearly contrived.