Père Lachaise

Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris — the most visited necropolis in the world — is the final resting place of an extraordinary concentration of literary, artistic, and intellectual figures including Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Honoré de Balzac, Colette, Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison, Chopin, and Molière. Numerous books document the cemetery's history, its famous residents, and its architecture and funerary art.

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1. Biography

A short life of the author

Père-Lachaise Cemetery, opened in 1804 on the eastern edge of Paris, is the largest cemetery in the city and the most visited necropolis in the world. Named after the Jesuit confessor to Louis XIV, it was designed by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart as a landscaped garden of the dead, intended to replace the overcrowded urban burial grounds of Paris.

Its literary and artistic residents include Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Honoré de Balzac, Colette, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Molière, La Fontaine, Guillaume Apollinaire, Richard Wright, and many more. Jim Morrison’s grave, the most visited in the cemetery, has been a pilgrimage site since 1971.

Numerous books document the cemetery — from photographic surveys of its funerary sculpture to literary guides mapping the graves of famous writers. Notable titles include Carolyn Campbell’s Père Lachaise: The World’s Most Famous Cemetery and David Downie’s walking guides to literary Paris.

Collecting Père Lachaise Books

Books about Père-Lachaise range from photographic art books to historical studies and literary walking guides.

Vintage photographic surveys and early illustrated guides to the cemetery from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are collected by bibliophiles interested in Paris, funerary art, and European cultural history.