Examples of Dedications
Dedication examples
You’ve written your book, passed out from joy, and woken up—and now you need to write a dedication to that person (or those people) that made it all possible. You want the dedication to mean something, but how do you make it work? There are lots of options, from simple to complex, and from formal to informal. Here are some dedication examples to give you an idea of how it can be done. Once you are finished your dedication, you may want a second opinion, and our manuscript editors would be happy to take a second look.
Formal and simple
For my mother.
Informal and simple
This is for you, Mom.
Informal and complex
This is for you, Mom. Thanks for always being there for me. And for macaroni and cheese every Thursday.
Formal and complex
I dedicate this to my mother and father; amare et sapere vix deo conceditur.
Informal, with anecdote
To Johnny, for the night in the car, the day on the beach, and the evening in jail—keep living the life, baby!
Formal, with anecdote
This book is dedicated to Barbara Johnson, for her kindness and devotion, and for her endless support when Catherine was ill; her selflessness will always be remembered.
Informal, in memory of
In memory of Melanie Trasker. You left fingerprints of grace on our lives. You shan’t be forgotten.
Formal, in memory of
For Clement Samuels, in memoriam.
He held no dream worth waking; so he said,
He who stands now on death’s triumphal steep,
Awakened out of life wherein we sleep
And dream of what he knows and sees, being dead.
But never death for him was dark or dread;
“Look forth,” he bade the soul, and fear not. Weep,
All ye that trust not in his truth, and keep
Vain memory’s vision of a vanished head
As all that lives of all that once was he
Save that which lightens from his word; but we,
Who, seeing the sunset-colored waters roll,
Yet know the sun subdued not of the sea,
Nor weep nor doubt that still the spirit is whole,
And life and death but shadows of the soul.
– Algernon Charles Swinburne
