In memoriam thread

Discussão75 Books Challenge for 2011

Aderi ao LibraryThing para poder publicar.

In memoriam thread

Este tópico está presentemente marcado como "adormecido"—a última mensagem tem mais de 90 dias. Pode acordar o tópico publicando uma resposta.

1elkiedee
Jan 5, 2011, 11:31 am

A thread for remembering writers, comments, links to obituaries etc.

2elkiedee
Jan 5, 2011, 11:34 am

Dick King-Smith, author of a large number of books for children, died yesterday, aged 88. I will add links later.

3alcottacre
Jan 6, 2011, 1:59 am

Good idea for a thread, Luci. I just hope it does not need a lot of use in 2011.

4elkiedee
Jan 12, 2011, 5:50 pm

I've seen the news on one of my crime fiction lists that Joe Gores has died aged 79. He was one of those writers whose work I've been meaning to get round to for a little while. He wrote a series about a PI firm, and he had worked as a PI himself for 12 years.

5alcottacre
Jan 12, 2011, 5:58 pm

I added this thread to the wiki when you first posted it, Luci, but forgot to mention it.

6lindapanzo
Editado: Jan 12, 2011, 6:28 pm

Mystery editor extraordinaire, Ruth Cavin, passed away earlier this week. Known as the "first lady of mystery," Cavin acquired and edited more than 900 books, mostly mysteries.

Among the mystery authors who did their first novels with her: Steve Hamilton, Laurie King, Charles Todd, Donna Andrews, and Julia Spencer-Fleming.

Amazingly, she did not begin her work as an editor until age 61.

ETA: Link to her obituary...
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2011/01/12/ruth_cavin_book...

Author Charles Todd "marveled that his kindly, white-haired editor liked to loosen up after hours with a Marlboro and a Budweiser."

7flissp
Jan 15, 2011, 3:49 pm

Oh no - I had no idea that Dick King Smith had died! How sad. I'll have to root out The Sheep Pig for a re-read.

8elkiedee
Jan 28, 2011, 11:32 pm

Diana Norman, historical novelist, also wrote historical crime series as Ariana Franklin, has died aged 77.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12309949

I've really loved several of her books, and have the first Ariana Franklin one to try.

9alcottacre
Jan 28, 2011, 11:39 pm

#8: I have enjoyed the series she wrote as Franklin. I am sorry to hear about her death.

10elkiedee
Jan 28, 2011, 11:45 pm

I've been going into LT to edit her details - one had her down as born 1948 and another 1950! Even her own publicity website as Franklin says she was born "just before" WWII. I've put 1933 in for now, will amend when a newspaper obituary appears.

11laytonwoman3rd
Jan 29, 2011, 10:49 am

Lost track of this thread for a while. Reynolds Price died on January 20, 2011. I've only read his Kate Vaiden, but he's long been on my shelf of Authors I Need to Know Better.

12Fourpawz2
Jan 29, 2011, 5:17 pm

How awful to hear of Norman's death! I am not a lover of mysteries, but have loved those of hers that I've read so far.

Would it be appropriate to mark the 'death' of Thomas P. Lowry's career by his own hand here? I learned this week that he admits to changing the date on the pardon of a Civil War soldier that was signed by Abraham Lincoln; he committed this unpardonable sin while right inside the National Archives! How can anyone ever crack the covers of any of his books again? Should the heat go off, I am thinking of using my only book by him as kindling.

13mamzel
Editado: Jan 29, 2011, 5:59 pm

I just finished Mistress of the Art of Death and loved it. I am so sorry Norman (Franklin) has died just as I have discovered her!

14PJGraham
Jan 31, 2011, 10:12 am

So sad to hear about Norman (I had no idea Franklin was a pseudonym)! I loved the Mistress of the Art of Death books and she seemed like someone concerned with presenting history correctly while weaving a good story – I loved how she would always point out where she deviated from history.

15elkiedee
Fev 6, 2011, 6:34 pm

Diana Norman's obituary from the Guardian, written by another crime writer, Laura Wilson:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/04/diana-norman-obituary

16elkiedee
Fev 7, 2011, 12:51 pm

Brian Jacques, children's author, known for the Redwall series, died on Saturday 5 February aged 71

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-12380763

17sgtbigg
Editado: Fev 14, 2011, 12:35 pm

#12 - Lowry is now claiming he was coerced into confessing and that he is not guilty of the charges. All the same I think is career is over.

18elkiedee
Editado: Mar 1, 2011, 1:10 pm

RIP Suze Rotolo, artist and author of A Freewheelin' Time, a memoir about her late teens/early 20s in Greenwich Village and the 60s - and Dylan, but that's not at all all she wrote about. She died of lung cancer last week, aged just 67.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/28/suze-rotolo-obituary

19elkiedee
Mar 1, 2011, 6:20 pm

Arnost Lustig, Czech writer who wrote of the Holocaust:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/arnost-lustig-survivor-of-three-naz...

Has anyone read his books?

20sgtbigg
Mar 1, 2011, 8:37 pm

#19 - I haven't read any of his books, but I knew him slightly when I was at AU during the 80s. I had a friend who TA'ed for him. She had some interesting things to say about him.

21kiwiflowa
Mar 4, 2011, 2:49 am

#19 I read Lovely Green Eyes by Arnost Lustig an unusual Halocaust story which made me think a lot (as well as a fast paced plot) I highly recommend it.

22souloftherose
Mar 26, 2011, 2:58 pm

Very sad to see the news that Diana Wynne Jones died in the early hours of this morning.

23fabtk
Mar 26, 2011, 3:46 pm

>22 souloftherose: Oh no! I hadn't heard that. I love her books.

24elkiedee
Mar 27, 2011, 12:49 am

Oh, that's terribly sad. I feared it was coming, as she had been battling lung cancer for a while - she'd made the decision to stop chemotherapy last summer - that would mean she outlived the doctor's forecast by 6 months.

25Noisy
Mar 27, 2011, 5:49 am

Are you folk aware of the Written in Stone group, where Varielle keeps a pretty comprehensive catalogue of deaths, with occasional help from others?

26sgtbigg
Editado: Mar 28, 2011, 2:07 pm

Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus died March 26, 2011, after a brief battle with cancer. Obits can be found on his website: http://www.joebageant.com/

27flissp
Mar 28, 2011, 2:42 pm

#22 - 24 Me too (loved her books & very sad) - I'd thought she'd gone into remission, but I suppose when you stop chemo, that can only go on so long.

We've got one more novel (Earwig and the Witch) and there's also going to be a collection of her articles letters and talks coming out at some point this year.

Neil Gaiman (who was a friend and saw her not long before she died) has written a blog about her.

28elkiedee
Mar 29, 2011, 8:09 am

Another RIP, I've not read his books but I've heard him speak:

HRF Keating died on Sunday 27 March, age 84

http://www.allisonandbusby.com/info/news-events/veteran-crime-writer-h-r-f-keati...

I believe his work's being reissued at the moment, because a new edition of one of his Inspector Ghote novels was offered on Amazon Vine

29elkiedee
Abr 23, 2011, 8:13 am

Not a writer of books, but of British TV comedy, most famously Only Fools and Horses, about a working class family in Peckham, south London - I just heard on the news that John Sullivan has died.

30elkiedee
Maio 2, 2011, 3:16 pm

Copied from Darryl's Club Read list:

The famed Argentinian writer Ernesto Sábato, author of The Tunnel, On Heroes and Tombs, and The Angel of Darkness, died on Saturday at the age of 99. The obituary in today's New York Times is pretty weak, but there is a much better one in yesterday's Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/01/ernesto-sabato-obituaryErnesto Sábato obituary

31elkiedee
Maio 20, 2011, 4:33 am

Joanna Russ died a few weeks ago on 29 April 2011, I've just found her obituary in last Friday's Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/12/joanna-russ-obituary

33kidzdoc
Maio 28, 2011, 3:01 pm

Gil Scott-Heron, the spoken word artist, musician, poet and novelist, died in New York yesterday at the age of 62, after returning from a European tour:

Gil Scott-Heron, Voice of Black Culture, Dies at 62 (New York Times)

Gil Scott-Heron obituary (Guardian)

34elkiedee
Maio 28, 2011, 3:57 pm

Thank you Darryl, that is sad news, his music isn't my normal listening, but I really love the small part of it I've heard.

35kidzdoc
Editado: Maio 28, 2011, 4:44 pm

You're welcome, Luci. I'll admit to being choked up about his passing, particularly because he was in the midst of a career comeback after a long spell of inactivity. I had hoped to see him perform in concert this summer, as I had missed seeing him in Atlanta a couple of years ago.

I knew that GSH was a published poet, but I didn't realize until today that he had a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins, and had written several novels. I downloaded two of them onto my Kindle this morning, and I'll read at least one of them in the next few weeks.

36lindapanzo
Jun 7, 2011, 12:12 pm

Lilian Jackson Braun, the author of 29 Cat Who cozy mysteries, just passed away at age 97.

http://www.legacy.com/ns/obituary.aspx?n=lilian-braun&pid=151633188

37elkiedee
Jun 7, 2011, 12:21 pm

Thanks Linda, I was intending to try and post that one.

38laytonwoman3rd
Jun 7, 2011, 12:30 pm

#36. Awww.....I enjoyed some of those.

39thornton37814
Jun 7, 2011, 9:03 pm

RIP - Koko and YumYum

40BookAngel_a
Jun 10, 2011, 3:37 pm

36- Wow, thanks for posting. I was beginning to wonder about her. In all of her books her picture looks exactly the same, and I never heard any news of her. She must have been a very private person.

Yes, RIP Koko, YumYum, and Quill...

41Chatterbox
Jun 10, 2011, 3:50 pm

Patrick Leigh Fermor, author of incomparable travel books and hero of incomparable feats (like kidnapping a Nazi general in Occupied Crete and transporting him back to be interrogated by the top brass), died today in Greece, age 96. Happily, the third volume of his walking trip from Holland to Constantinople in the early/mid 30s is, his biographer says, now complete and will be published. That story begins with A Time of Gifts.

Here's the obit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/10/patrick-leigh-fermor-dies-96

42laytonwoman3rd
Editado: Jun 14, 2011, 7:29 am

Kathryn Tucker Windham, Southern storyteller, folklorist, author and friend of Harper Lee, has died. Don't just read the story, listen. You'll be glad you did.

43elkiedee
Editado: Jul 8, 2011, 7:00 am

RIP Iain Blair, better known as Emma Blair, author of historical sagas with strong female characters.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/8...

44elkiedee
Jul 14, 2011, 3:18 pm

RIP Jennifer Worth, author of Call the Midwife, a memoir of working as a midwife in east London in the 1950s, and two further books, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the East End. She died of cancer on 31 May aged 75. She's also written a book about the care of elderly people.

45laytonwoman3rd
Editado: Jul 29, 2011, 12:41 pm

Sorry to have lost Dean Faulkner Wells. An author, and a wonderful friend of authors, not to mention that she was the niece of my man, Bill.

46elkiedee
Ago 3, 2011, 4:38 pm

Stan Barstow, whose most famous book was A Kind of Loving died on 1 August.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/01/stan-barstow-obituary

47jacqueline065
Ago 4, 2011, 12:29 am

Leslie Esdaile Banks known as L. A. Banks died early morning of August 3rd. She suffered from adrenal cancer. She was the author of the Vampire Huntress Legend Series. If you have anymore information please feel free to add links.

48elkiedee
Ago 5, 2011, 12:16 am

I don't have more information at the moment, not really my thing but my partner likes her books. She was only 50. Sad.

49jacqueline065
Ago 7, 2011, 12:35 am

> 48

I think as a tribute I am going to read one of her books this month in the challenge "Authors Who use 2 Initials.

50elkiedee
Ago 8, 2011, 12:27 pm

Elle Newmark, author of two novels, The Sandalwood Tree (a recent ER title) and The Book of Unholy Mischief died aged 65 at the end of June, after a long illness. I haven't read her books but I'm being sent a copy of #2 to review for the Transworld reading challenge.

51alcottacre
Ago 8, 2011, 9:20 pm

William Sleator died August 3rd. I have only read one of his books, House of Stairs, and enjoyed it.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/obituaries/article/48229-obi...

52sgtbigg
Ago 9, 2011, 11:50 pm

Fred Imus, co-author of Two Guys Four Corners: Great Photographs, Great Times, and a Million Laughs and The Fred Book, songwriter, and host of "Trailer Park Bash" on Sirius Satellite Radio died August 6 of as yet undetermined causes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2011/08/06/2011-08-06_fred_imus_songwri...

53lindapanzo
Ago 10, 2011, 3:00 pm

Not an author, but a publisher of classic mysteries. I've deal with Enid many times and will miss her.

According to Janet Rudolph's mystery blog:
"The Mystery Community lost one of its special people this morning. Enid Schantz, bookseller, book publisher (Rue Morgue), convention organizer, reviewer and wonderful person, succumbed to cancer early this morning."

54elkiedee
Ago 11, 2011, 9:12 am

I'm glad you posted that, I'd seen the news on the 4 Mystery Addicts email list. I always used to enjoy browsing their stall at US conventions, and chatted to Enid and her husband once or twice.

55marieke54
Editado: Out 2, 2011, 2:58 pm



Hella Serafia Haasse 2 februari 1918 – 29 september 2011

Last Thursday at the age of 93 years Hella Haasse, the “Grand Old Lady of Dutch literature”, passed away after a short illness.

Haasse was a writer of historical novels, but also of essays, autobiographical material, short stories, theater plays etc., together more than 70 works.

She was best known in Holland for her debut novel, Oeroeg, published in 1948, which told the story of a friendship between a Dutch boy and a native from the the Dutch East Indies – a controversial topic in post-war Netherlands – which drew on her own experiences, she was born and lived there during the first 20 years of her life.

Probably internationally best known is her In a Dark Wood Wandering, a fictionalised biography of Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was captured at the battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Year War and taken to Britain as a prisoner.

Her own favourite novel was Threshold of Fire, which describes one (extraordinary) day in the life of the last Roman classical poet Claudius Claudianus.

A lot of her works have been translated all over the world, her complete works are available in French.

In a career which spanned seven decades, she got numerous awards for her work, among them the Constantijn Huygens Prijs in 1981, the P.C. Hooft Prijs in 1984, and the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren 2004, all prestigious literary honours in Holland. She was also made an Officier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur in 2000 in France.

She was a lovely person.

56gennyt
Out 2, 2011, 4:30 pm

Thanks for posting that, Marieke - with the photo too. I'm not familiar with her work at all, but will check out some of those titles.

57kidzdoc
Out 20, 2011, 12:22 am

The puertorriqueño-cubano author Piri Thomas died on Monday, at the age of 83. He grew up on the rough streets of Spanish Harlem in NYC, and was best known for his 1967 memoir Down These Mean Streets, a no holds barred look at the horrors and hardships of inner city life. He also wrote two novels, Savior, Savior Hold My Hand and Seven Long Times, a short story collection, Stories from El Barrio, and poetry, which he set to music.

New York Times: Piri Thomas, Spanish Harlem Author, Dies at 83

58kidzdoc
Nov 5, 2011, 10:04 am

The longtime CBS writer, reporter, commentator and all around curmudgeon Andy Rooney died yesterday at the age of 92, from complications after surgery soon after his retirement. I didn't realize that he had written 15 books during his life, which include his first book A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney and his last, 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit. For those of you not in the US, he was a fixture on the Sunday evening CBS News program 60 Minutes since 1978, ending each broadcast with a bitingly funny and occasionally touching piece about his life, our society, and the world we live in. He gave me many laughs and smiles over the years, and he'll be missed by many of us.

Andy Rooney, '60 Minutes' Commentator, Dies

59laytonwoman3rd
Nov 5, 2011, 12:14 pm

I'm so glad he got to say good-bye to us. I was already missing him. Wish he could have enjoyed a bit of retirement.

60maggie1944
Nov 5, 2011, 12:37 pm

I am sorry to see him go, and will miss him on 60 Minutes. I imagine he died as he wished, "with his boots on" so to speak. Retirement is just not all it is cracked up to be, for some people.

61elkiedee
Nov 20, 2011, 3:42 pm

A songwriter rather than an author, although he collaborated with Ian Rankin on a show and album Jackie Leven says:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/15/jackie-leven

Rankin wrote about Rebus listening to the music and Leven contacted him about it and they went from there, apparently. That was how I first heard of him, I was curious and I liked what I heard.

I'm really sad about this one, I had a lot of his music downloaded but after a series of hard drive crashes and a drowned ipod I may have to just buy it all again, I'm going to try and find out later.

62gennyt
Nov 20, 2011, 3:47 pm

I've seen the references in Ian Rankin, but hadn't got round to looking up more about him or listening to his music; something to investigate now. I hope you don't have to download it all over again, Luci.

63elkiedee
Nov 20, 2011, 3:58 pm

It's not as bad as it sounds if I do, I have two emusic subscriptions meaning I need to use it or lose it to the tune of 130 album tracks a month. I used to buy loads and every time I was thinking of ditching it I would find just a few more things to use this month's subs. Emusic is an indie label site and I think a lot of Leven's work was/is there as he'd been on Cooking Vinyl for the last 17 years.

64gennyt
Nov 20, 2011, 4:00 pm

I've got a membership of eMusic and keep forgetting to download - I hate it that you can't carry over from one month to the next. I put membership on hold for a few months recently - I must check if I'm back live again, and perhaps download some of his.

66ronincats
Nov 22, 2011, 9:25 pm

I just saw that in the rec. arts.sf.written newsgroup, and figured that is what this post was about. I knew she was 85, but had no idea she wasn't well, just finished reading the latest Pern book.

67susiesharp
Nov 22, 2011, 9:53 pm

Me too and she had talked about doing another F'lar & Lessa book I guess I'll just have to go back and read the originals again I am a huge fan of the world of Pern she created!

69elkiedee
Nov 27, 2011, 3:46 pm

Shelagh Delaney, playwright best known for A Taste of Honey has died aged 72 - this obit says 71 but in fact she would have turned 73 yesterday (of breast cancer and heart failure):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/nov/21/shelagh-delaney

70elkiedee
Editado: Nov 27, 2011, 3:59 pm

And Peter Reading, poet, at 65 (much too young it seems to me, now my parents are 67 and 71

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8907920/Peter-Reading.html

71PrueGallagher
Nov 30, 2011, 2:23 pm

Ken Russell - not a writer but I just loved his filming of Women in Love

72avatiakh
Dez 14, 2011, 1:01 pm

73gennyt
Dez 14, 2011, 1:33 pm

Thanks for that, Kerry. He's been a very interesting writer, I'm sorry he won't be writing any more.

74kidzdoc
Editado: Dez 14, 2011, 6:49 pm

George Whitman, the founder of the current version of the famed Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, died today at the age of 98. Whitman opened the second version of the bookstore in 1950; the original bookshop was founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, which closed in 1941. He and the bookstore were described in the book Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer, who spent several months there as a "tumbleweed", one of the thousands of people who lived in the bookstore for free in exchange for working there and reading one book a day.

George Whitman, founder of Paris’ Shakespeare and Company bookstore, dies at age 98

75alcottacre
Dez 16, 2011, 1:40 am

I read Time Was Soft There a couple of months ago. I am sorry to hear about Whitman's death.

76kidzdoc
Editado: Dez 16, 2011, 2:02 am

The public intellectual Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, Hitch-22 and numerous other books, lost his public battle to esophageal cancer last night, at the age of 62.

New York Times: Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, With Wit

Guardian: Christopher Hitchens dies aged 62

77Citizenjoyce
Dez 16, 2011, 2:21 am

Oh, I hadn't heard about Hitchens. Another one who died with his boots on. Wow, he was getting his message out to the end.

78laytonwoman3rd
Dez 16, 2011, 9:14 am

I just came here to see if anyone had posted yet about Hitchens. I saw him speak just a little over a year ago---"ferocious intellect" indeed.

79elkiedee
Editado: Dez 16, 2011, 2:48 pm

I wondered if someone had posted, and thought when I saw so many posts that someone must have.

I was having a look at prices of his books on Amazon - I read his memoir Hitch 22 last year and then bought the Kindle version with a new introduction clearly written after his diagnosis this year. I'm interested in Arguably but it's a rather weighty 800 page tome in paper. Anyway, I discovered that there is a blog called Christopher Hitchens Watch (We watch Hitchens so you don't have to) - I wonder what they'll do now!

80elkiedee
Dez 16, 2011, 3:53 pm

On another note entirely, Helen Forrester was the author of one of my favourite memoirs, Twopence to Cross the Mersey - it has been unfairly described as misery lit - it's really not. She has died at the age of 92:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/02/helen-forrester

81elkiedee
Dez 16, 2011, 3:56 pm

82kidzdoc
Dez 18, 2011, 7:51 am

The Czech playwright, dissident and poet Vaclav Havel died earlier this morning after a long illness, at the age of 75. He was the last president of Czechoslovakia, and the first democratically elected president of the Czech Republic, serving from 1993-2003.

Havel, Czech Playwright And Former President, Dies

83PrueGallagher
Ago 7, 2012, 7:56 pm

Aussie shit-stirrer and art critic with the Times, Robert Hughes, died in New York today. Writer of several books, including Shock of the New and American Visions and the excellent The Fatal Shore he was witty and erudite and a bit of a rabble-rouser.