We’re happy to announce that Tales from Bellefontaine is the Gold Medal Winner of the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Regional Non-Fiction.

The history of Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis is told through the stories of some of the 87,000 people who are buried there in Movers and Shakers, Scalawags and Suffragettes: Tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery by Carol Ferring Shepley.

Shepley’s guidebook to St. Louis’ notable residents is organized into sections, such as artists, fur traders, and Civil War generals, and features biographies of William Clark, James Buchanan Eads, Susan Blow, and Adolphus Busch, not to mention some more notorious backgrounds. Cemetery records and interviews with such insiders as the cemetery’s superintendent and gatekeeper inform the research. The contributions and controversies that make up St. Louis history are revealed, and the architecture and landscape of the cemetery are celebrated as significant to the region.

The book is available for purchase at our cemetery office, the St. Louis History Museum and local bookstores such as Left Bank Books, Borders, and Barnes & Noble.

To read an excerpt from the book, click here.