Thomas Lynch

Thomas Lynch is an American undertaker, poet and essay writer. He is the author of The Undertaking and its main character and was born in 1948. Still living, Lynch is widely known for his poetry and writing, and The Undertaking has won several prestigious awards. He is actually the manager of his father's funeral home in Milford, Michigan, Lynch and Sons Funeral Home, despite being a nationally renowned writer.

The Undertaking is not a biography of Lynch, nor is it even a chronological series of stories about him. Instead, the book is a set of his own life studies in death and dying from the perspective of an undertaker/poet, a peculiarly unusual combination. In the book, the reader encounters Thomas as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, a father, and a divorcee. One learns about his relationship with his father, his mother, his brothers...