by stevewall on June 22, 2004
Spent all afternoon at Bonaventure Cemetery (see text from John Muir's 1916 journal about his visit at end of my journal). Surrounded by marshes and a river, this cemetery's lush vegetation swells over its entrance. Resting on the site of a former plantation house, its numerous granite and marble tombs cradled by ancient oaks dripping Spanish moss are the backdrop for John Berendt's Southern Gothic tale, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which has brought so many tourists to this cemetery's paths that the owners of the sculpture featured on the book's cover have moved it to the Telfair Museum. Illinois artist Sylvia Shaw Judson sculpted the 4-foot statue Bird Girl in 1938 as a garden fountain. Lucy Boyd Trosdal bought one of three copies for the family plot in Bonaventure. Residence of composer Johnny Mercer and poet Conrad Aiken. I took many photos there. We were struck by how many graves were decorated by poinsettias, Christmas trees (decorated), and other Christmas objects, including wrapped gift boxes.
http://www.igougo.com/review-r1216027-Bonaventure_Cemetery.html
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