‘Obit’ is a lesson in how to bring the dead to vivid life

‘He crossed the Atlantic because it was there, and the Pacific because it was also there. He made both crossings in a rowboat because it, too, was there."

So begins the 2012 New York Times obituary for madcap adventurer John Fairfax, a nifty piece of writing that its author, Margalit Fox, says...