Jessica Ferri – Jill Grinberg Literary Management

Jessica Ferri

Jessica Ferri is a freelance writer whose work has been published by The New Yorker’s Page Turner Blog, The Economist, NPR, Yahoo!, Bustle, Time Out New York, The Lineup, The Barnes and Noble Review, and The Daily Beast, where she is a regular contributor. Her books, Silent Cities New York and Silent Cities San Francisco, began as an Instagram travelogue chronicling cemeteries and their unique and largely forgotten stories. She lives with her family in the Bay Area.

Agent

Katelyn Detweiler

Silent Cities: San Francisco

Silent Cities: San Francisco chronicles the impact of cemeteries on American cities through the gold-rush development of San Francisco: the relocation of existing cemeteries and prohibition of burials within the city limits at the turn of the century, spawning America’s first necropolis, the tiny town of Colma, and the culture of a place where death is exiled.

Publisher

Globe Pequot

Publication Date

October 15, 2021

Age Category

Adult

Genre

Nonfiction/Narrative

Rights

JGLM

Silent Cities: New York: Hidden Histories of the Region’s Cemeteries

New Yorkers have always been pressed for space in life and in death. Central Park is synonymous with New York City. But without Green-Wood Cemetery, located in South Brooklyn, Central Park would have never existed. Founded in 1838, Green-Wood became the city’s most popular tourist attraction. The cemetery was so popular that urban planners challenged architects to come up with plans for a separate green-space for Manhattan. Hence, both Central Park, founded in 1857, and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in 1867, were born.

Green-Wood presented not only a place to bury the dead but a meditative haven away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Other cemeteries followed in the park style, including Sleepy Hollow and Woodlawn. New York’s changing cultural landscape made Ferncliff Cemetery one of the most coveted places to spend eternity, with the rising popularity of Westchester County and suburban living. New Yorkers even secured a place for the four-legged members of the family with Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, now the largest and oldest pet cemetery in the United States.

From the movers and shakers of New York society, to corrupt political bosses and mafiosi, Jazz legends, and a Brooklyn native son who returned to Green-Wood as one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, the stories of the permanent residents of these cemeteries are just as diverse and vibrant as the city itself. To travel through the cemeteries of New York is to travel through the hidden history of what some consider to be the greatest city in the world.

Praise for Silent Cities: New York

“If you, like me, find yourself seeking out cemeteries in moments of heartbreak or turmoil, as a way of checking-in with the grand human continuum—all the known and unknown lives that preceded your own—Jessica Ferri’s Silent Cities: New York will feel like a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. It’s a gorgeous, thoughtful, and beautifully written ode to how we live and how we die.” –Amanda Petrusich, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records

“A beautiful meditation on New York City through its cemeteries, filled with fascinating forgotten history and a gentle awareness of life’s beauty and precarity.” –Bess Lovejoy, author of Rest in Pieces