Alexandra Kathryn Mosca is a writer and funeral director in New York City. She is a regular contributor to magazines such as American Cemetery and American Funeral Director.
Title: Author peeks into past with book about cemetery Author:
Andrea Boyarsky Publisher: Staten Island Advance Date:
1/11/2009
There are many ways to learn about history. You could read a
textbook, visit a museum or chat with an old-timer. Or, perhaps,
you could visit a cemetery.
The latter would be Alexandra Kathryn Mosca's suggestion. In her
new book, "Green-Wood Cemetery," part of Arcadia Publishing's
Images of America series, the writer and funeral director delves
into the history and famous names buried in the Brooklyn
cemetery.
The cemetery also is the resting place of many Staten Islanders and
their family members, some of whom made the move over the bridge
from Brooklyn.
"What I hope is that it reacquaints people with the history of the
city and with America," said Ms. Mosca, a Sea Cliff, L.I., resident
who directs a funeral home in Queens. "The people [buried there]
are so compelling and interesting, they have given so much to
society."
The famous names buried within the 478-acre cemetery established in
1838 include former Gov. DeWitt Clinton; William Magear "Boss"
Tweed, a corrupt New York state senator who died in jail; George
Tilyou, founder of Coney Island's Steeplechase Park, and Maj. Gen.
Henry Slocum, a Civil War veteran who represented New York in the
House of Representatives.
There also are titans of industries buried within: William Colgate,
who started what is now Colgate-Palmolive; Juan Trippe, founder of
Pan American World Airways; Frederick August Otto Schwarz, founder
of toy store FAO Schwarz; German chemist Charles Pfizer, who
started the pharmaceutical company, and Henry Steinway, the piano
maker.
"I love history and I think many people do and it's a fun way to
learn about it," Ms. Mosca said of the cemetery.
The book, which features numerous historical photos, was published
in September and took Ms. Mosca about nine months to complete.
During that time, she made countless visits to Green-Wood and did
much research. "Once I got through reading about it, the subject
matter was so compelling, I just kept reading," she said.
This is Ms. Mosca's second book. Her first, "Grave Undertakings"
(New Horizon Press), chronicles her career as a woman in the
funeral industry. She is currently working on her next untitled
book, a fiction piece about a reluctant funeral director who finds
herself involved in a murder mystery. There's scene set at
Green-Wood and the murder victim is from Staten Island.
She also contributes to American Cemetery and American Funeral
Director magazines and has written articles on funerals of the
famous, including Margaret Mitchell, Eva Peron, Marilyn Monroe and
John Gotti.
Alexandra Mosca will sign copies of the book at the Barnes and
Nobles in Park Slope, Brooklyn, 267 Seventh Ave., on Thursday at 7
p.m.
Title: New book traces Green-Wood's ghostly past
Author: Lauren Johnston
Publisher: amNew York
Date: October 29, 2009 When it comes to ghostly haunts, Green-Wood
Cemetery has an esteemed list of resident spirits. The gravesites
of notable New Yorkers cover its 478 acres, including the likes of
Peter Cooper, Charles Pfizer, "Boss" Tweed and artist Jean Michel
Basquiat. We talked to author Alexandra Kathryn Mosca, who is also
a funeral director, about her new pictorial book, "Green-Wood
Cemetery," to learn more about its haunted history. Q: What was
your most surprising discovery while researching?
A: One of the people I found was Dr. August Renouard. When I was
coming up as a funeral director, the old-timers would talk about
him. He was considered the father of modern day embalming. To a
funeral director, that was significant. Q: Which gravesite is the
spookiest?
A: There is a really strange gravestone. It belonged to [former
mayor of Brooklyn] Charles Schieren. The mayor and his wife died a
few days apart, they both had pneumonia. The monument is the angel
of death. I think it's one of the eeriest. Q: You've written about
many cemeteries, what makes Green-Wood special?
A: It's almost a history - certainly of New York, but also of
America as well. The people [buried there] are nationally known,
names like Steinway, FAO Schwarz. Everybody knows these names. Q:
What new things will New Yorkers learn about Green-Wood from your
book?
A: These names like [Horace] Greeley, Peter Cooper, we learn these
as children and over the years, the accomplishments of these people
become vague. I think this reacquaints them with the history of New
York. Q: How much time did you spend exploring the cemetery while
writing?
A: I went there several days a week and walked the grounds and it
was so amazing, even in the winter. You would just turn a corner
and discover something. Mosca will lead a cemetery trolley tour
based on her book on Nov. 23 at 1 p.m., followed by an author Q &
A, $20 for the tour, $30 for the tour and a copy of the book.
"Green-Wood Cemetery," Arcadia Publishing, $19.99.
Title: Queens Writer Celebrates Cemetery Culture
Author: Lisa Fogarty
Publisher: Queens Tribune
Date: 2/5/2009 Most of the protagonists in Alexandra Kathryn
Mosca's latest book are wealthy. Some are artistic geniuses who
founded newspapers and conducted legendary scores. And, of course,
there is a healthy sprinkling of suicidal poets, murderers and
mobsters in the mix. Despite their idiosyncrasies, the characters
in "Green-Wood Cemetery" share one thing in common: they have all
been buried in what is considered the grandest final resting place
in all of New York City. The roster at Green-Wood Cemetery, a
478-acre burial ground and national landmark located in Brooklyn,
reads like a Who's Who of New York's most influential
personalities. In this photographic tribute, Mosca, a lifelong
Queens resident and local funeral director, captures the historical
stories and anecdotes of past residents including F.A.O. Schwartz,
Leonard Bernstein, New York Times founder Henry Jarvis Raymond and
Charles L. Tiffany, the patriarch behind Tiffany & Co. "Researching
the book was the best part. I knew there were a lot of famous
people buried there but I had no idea how many," Mosca said. In
addition to illuminating the lives and deaths of many famous
Americans, the book explores Green-Wood Cemetery's effort to
identify and properly memorialize Civil War veterans who previously
lay in unidentified graves. It also features a section devoted to
the cemetery's architecture and landscape. As part of her research,
Mosca relied heavily on the Green-Wood Cemetery Archives, Library
of Congress and Brooklyn Historical Society. She spent several
hours exploring the cemetery by foot, searching for monuments to
photograph or interesting inscriptions to include within her text.
"It was incredible. Readers would expect to see a lot of famous
people in the book, and they're there, but I also decided to
include some common people as well - people with fascinating
stories," she said. Growing up, Mosca always wanted to be a writer.
In college she majored in English and took on a side job at a
funeral home in Bayside. Rather than simply augment her income, her
part-time job proved formative. Where some find tragedy, Mosca
found meaning in funeral work. "When you deal with death on a daily
basis, it's very profound," she said. "People are coming to you at
the worst time in their lives and you do what you can to help
lessen their pain. You realize how fortunate you are and how every
day is very precious." In her 20s, Mosca's convivial outlook on
life helped open the doors to many unique opportunities. She became
a funeral director at a time when, for a young woman, the career
choice was still an unorthodox one. At the same time, she carved a
niche in the writing world as a contributor to trade publications
"American Cemetery" and "American Funeral Director" magazines. She
even posed for Playboy, selected for both her natural beauty and
anomalous professional accomplishments. "My feeling was 'Who knows
what's going to happen in life?' I was a portrait model so I jumped
at the opportunity to pose for Playboy," she said. "It seemed like
at the end of life people regret the things they didn't do. I
didn't want to have regrets." Mosca is currently working on a
murder-mystery novel about a female funeral director involved in
the solving of a crime. She began writing the book even before she
got the idea to pitch "Green-Wood Cemetery" to Arcadia Publishing.
Coincidentally, many of the scenes in her book actually take place
at Green-Wood. "Cemeteries are like outdoor history museums," she
said. "People should take advantage of them because you can really
rediscover the history of this great city." "Green-Wood Cemetery"
can be purchased on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and at
Green-Wood Cemetery. To learn more about Mosca, visit
www.alexandramosca.com.
Title: Touring Green-Wood With an Expert
Author: Phoebe Neidl
Publisher: Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Date: 9/1/09 Even before Green-Wood was established as a cemetery
in Brooklyn in 1838, it was a place of historic importance. As was
commemorated in a ceremony this past weekend, it was the site of a
skirmish in the Battle of Brooklyn, the first major battle of the
American Revolution.
Since the fight for our nation's founding, many more stories have
unfolded on these hallowed grounds, now home to a half-million
souls buried among the 478 acres of manicured grounds, glacier
ponds and elegant statues. Many historians and writers have found
inspiration in the lives of those buried at Green-Wood -- a
population that includes many of the notable and notorious in New
York City's history. Alexandra Mosca is one of the most recent
researchers bewitched by Green-Wood's wealth of history. She
compiled and wrote a book about Green-Wood for Arcadia Publishing's
Images of America series. The book was released in 2008 and this
September 12, Mosca will lead a special trolley tour of the
cemetery featuring sites pictured in the book. "The history there
is just phenomenal. Green-Wood is like an outdoor museum and
historical repository," says Mosca, who discovered Green-Wood
through her day job as a funeral director. Mosca was studying
journalism in college when she took a fateful job as a receptionist
at a funeral parlor. The rest is history, as they say. During her
25 years as a funeral director in Elmhurst, Queens, Mosca has
pursued her journalistic ambitions by writing about her profession
and profiling cemeteries for trade magazines. "I still get to
write, and I have something to write about," she says,
acknowledging, "I far prefer visiting cemeteries for research than
in my job as a funeral director." It took nine months of research
through Green-Wood's archives, the Library of Congress, the
Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Eagle archives to
complete the book. "Having been [to Green-Wood] many times over the
years, I was familiar with many of the famous names, but when I
began the book project, my research continually surprised me," she
says. "I found more and more fascinating stories. It became a
question of winnowing down the subjects... I can see a Green-Wood
II, III and IV and I'm not sure if that would be enough to
encompass all the stories it has to tell. New stories are being
revealed all the time." "Boss" Tweed, Leonard Bernstein, Horace
Greeley, and Henry Ward Beecher are among the famous names gracing
Green-Wood's gravestones, but Mosca's tour will include interesting
lesser-knowns, such as Charles Feltman, who is credited with
inventing the hot dog; Dr. Auguste Renouard, the "father of
embalming;" and John Matthews, the creator of carbonated drinks
(Matthews designed his own monument which won the mortuary monument
of the year award in 1870.) The tour ends with a visit to the
magnificently detailed statue of DeWitt Clinton, Green-Wood's first
tourist attraction. The Images of America book on Green-Wood
Cemetery is available through Green-Wood and at local Barnes &
Noble stores. The hour-long September 12th tour will begin at 1
p.m. and will be followed by a Q&A session. Visit
alexandramosca.com and green-wood.com for more info.
Title: Book Review: Green-Wood Cemetery Author: Staff Writer
Publisher: TPC Matters Date: February 2009
We all come to an end and Green-Wood Cemetery, on 25th Street in
Brooklyn, seems to me a fine resting place for our mortal
remains.
A new book of local interest by Alexandra Mosca, published by
Arcadia, presents the history of Green-Wood with photos and
postcards.
An edited Barnes & Noble synopsis follows:
For generations, Green-Wood Cemetery has played an integral part in
New York City's cultural history, serving as a gathering place and
a cultural repository.
Situated in the borough of Brooklyn, the thousands of graves and
mausoleums within the cemetery's 478 acres are tangible links and
reminders to key events and people who made New York City and
America what it is today.
The monuments read like a who's who of American greatness and
include the names of Leonard Bernstein, F. A. O. Schwarz, Charles
L. Tiffany, Samuel Morse, among others.
A national historic landmark since 2006, Green-Wood is considered
one of the preeminent cemeteries in the country. A century ago it
was a social venue for picnics, outings, and political events, and
today remains one of the city's largest open green spaces.
Through vintage photographs and postcards, Ms. Mosca has chronicled
the cemetery's rich history and documents how its tradition as a
park and a popular tourist attraction continues, drawing 300,000
visitors annually.
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