Timed as a Halloween-themed “Writers at Work” event, Washington Post obituary editor Adam Bernstein spoke to students and faculty Tuesday night (October 27) in the Memorial Room of Ryan Library. This was the second “Writers at Work” event for 2009-10. Mr. Bernstein wrote about his visit to The Hill in his blog "Post Mortem."
View a video clip from Mr. Bernstein's talk.
In introducing Bernstein, Writing Center Director Tony Reid ’75 noted that many people may believe that a paper’s obituary writers are the most important people in the newsroom. An obituary writer’s difficult charge involves finding the details of a person’s life and conveying why that person’s story is worth sharing.
Bernstein conveyed how fortunate he feels to be an obit writer, as the assignment allows him to write about a wide range of topics, from politics and education, to entertainment and sports.
“An obituary writer must know a little bit about everything,” he said. The writer must be able to delve into a person’s biography and summarize the notable life in about 1,000 words, blending both sensitivity and accuracy, sometimes in situations where the person’s life included public controversy – and all while meeting what may be a very tight deadline.
When singer-songwriter Ray Charles died, “I had about three hours to put him together,” Bernstein noted.
“One finds in writing obits how much power one has in shaping a legacy,” Bernstein said.
Image-conscious people have been known to seek out obituary writers at parties, although Bernstein said he makes it very clear that he will never share a person’s pre-written obituary with him or her in advance.
A number of factors determine whether or not a person will receive a Washington Post obituary – elements ranging from how famous the person was to how many reporters are available at the time of the death and how many other obits must be written at the time.
Bernstein said he has been bothered by reading obits for members of the armed forces in cases where the writers “made them all sound the same.” It takes extra effort for an obituary writer to find out what made each of these people different – “what made them human” – and he or she has a responsibility to convey those traits, he said.
While he has between 150 to 160 obits “in the can, ready to go,” Bernstein said, his own obituary is not among those stories.