Commemorating Larry Auster's Tombstone

Laura Wood, of The Thinking Housewife, who organized the event to mark the placing of Larry Auster's new tombstons, writes here:

Last week, five friends of the writer Lawrence Auster, who died in March of last year, gathered at his graveside at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield, Pennsylvania to mark the placing of a new tombstone at the site. We all continue to miss him, but it was a happy occasion to be there together and remember the man who so inspired us and truly was the greatest of friends. Afterward, we went to a restaurant nearby and talked about Mr. Auster’s work and life. There was so much to say. We agreed that we would all visit his grave together at least once a year.

Thank you to the readers of View from the Right and to Auster family members who contributed to this beautiful monument made of Vermont granite. I wish to thank especially a reader from New Orleans who contributed $1,000.

Larry Auster would have been happy with this choice of material: Vermont granite.

He posted a discussion at View From the Right an article on the Martin Luther King Memorial in 2010, where a reader comments:

...one reads with interest the February 11th [2010] issue of The Washington Post, where an article describes the future arrival of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. This enormous piece of carved stone will stand nearly 31 feet above the ground at the other end of Washington’s Tidal Basin, the site of the cherry blossom trees, and opposite the Jefferson Memorial. King’s stone image will be at least 10 feet higher than Jefferson or Lincoln in their respective memorials, and will require driving hundreds of concrete piles into the ground to support this 55 ton Stone of Hope Memorial, on which King is shown, bracketed by two called Stones of Despair. What may interest, as well as amuse, some readers is that The King Memorial was carved entirely from Chinese stone, and will be shipped from China.

Another reader comments:

...the weighty and ponderous slabs of stone that comprise the memorial, each of which weighs, “thousands of tons,” are “ready to be shipped,” according to The Post article

And adds this from the Washington Post article:

...these component slabs will leave Xiamin China and arrive in Baltimore by March or April. At that point, the Chinese architect, Lei Yixin, plans to finish the work by the summer or early autumn...

The sculptor also carved a statue of the Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-tung. This isn't mentioned in this particular posting at VFR, but I do remember someone bringing it up in a discussion at another posting.

The full Washington Post article is here.

Chinese stone, carved by a Chinese, to commemorate an American was a subject worthy of Larry's attention, and indignation.

He would have certainly approved of the American stone chosen for him, carved by an American craftsman, to be placed on his modest grave.

The light gray, textured stone is beautiful. The base, which seems to have been left uncarved, gives us some idea of where this stone came from.

In order not to detract from the simple beauty of the stone, Laura arranged to have the inscriptions as simple as possible, but with a beauty of their own. The simple cross and the varied scripts with the Biblical quotes in italic, give a solemn, yet light message.


Rock of Ages Granite Quarry, Barre, VT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------