The Harlem Book of the Dead

James Van Der Zee, Owen Dodson, Camille Billops


Primary Information, 2025 | Managing Editors: Garrett Bradley and James Hoff, Designer: Bryce Wilner, Copy Editor: Allison Dubinsky | 108 pages | 9 x 10.5 inches | Paperback

This now classic collaboration, originally published in 1978, documents Black funerary traditions in Harlem through the carefully staged photographs of James Van Der Zee. The book includes more than three dozen funeral portraits accompanied by poems by Owen Dodson, an interview with Van Der Zee by editor Camille Billops, a foreword by Toni Morrison, descriptions of the plates by Van Der Zee and Billops, and an afterword by Karla FC Holloway. In the book, there is a striking attention to composition, including the way Dodson's poetry and framing graphics claim significant visual space on the page, and Billops' thoughtful selection from Van Der Zee's photographs, produced a sensory project that gives voice to Harlem's dead. "Just as a funeral program is carefully kept, stored like a family treasure, gathered up, and carefully preserved in a bureau drawer piano bench, or family scrapbook, this book gathers Harlem." - Karla FC Holloway