 Mann was inspired to produce the photographs in the book by her reactions to several different events.The first of these was the death of her father; later events that inspired her interest in death were the shooting of a prison escapee on the grounds of her Lexington, Virginia, farm and the death of her pet greyhound, Eva.Mann arranged for Eva's skin to be preserved by tanning and buried her body in a cage in order to prevent the remains from being carried off by wild animals.