In Memoriam

Our place for remembering those whose lives have touched us, especially those whose writing has impacted us.

He died on Christmas Day, but I think it's still à propos to celebrate Barry Lopez here for his seventy-five years with us.

And in case anyone wonders, he died of metastatic prostate cancer. Fuck cancer.

>2 richardderus: Very sad. I was just eyeing Arctic Dreams the other day, with a view to a reread, as it was long ago when I read it. I wanted to revisit before reading the recent follow-up.

>3 Caroline_McElwee: It's the perfect time to do that! No greater honor for an author's passing that to be read.

>2 richardderus: I second that sentiment. My mom has cancer. It doesn’t matter what kind it is, cancer just sucks.

>5 CassieBash: That's very sad to learn, and please know the many, many of us affected by this horrible disease are right there with you in your emotional journey.

>5 CassieBash: & >6 richardderus: What RD said Cassie.

I had my own scare a couple of years ago and, like you, my mum has had cancer (of the cervix, stomach and bowel) in addition to an apparently non-malignant tumour on her brain. Somehow she keeps on keeping on and as someone I always considered a hypochondriac, she has amazed me with her capacity to fight.

>5 CassieBash: I third that sentiment. Over the weekend I took my father to the ER, and the diagnosis is the Big C.

If you don't see as much of me you'll understand why. So many options and consultations are on the horizon.

>2 richardderus: oh no! I was introduced to him by my lovely ex, who admired him excessively.
(Or, just the right amount, depending on your POV).

>9 LovingLit: Well, there's nothing like introducing you to a great writer to earn the epithet "lovely" in front of "ex."

Crummy news, readers. Eric Jerome Dickey has died. The Blackbirds and Sister, Sister were kinda bookends to his wildly successful career.

He was only fifty-nine.

Ved Mehta, longtime New Yorker writer and author of Daddyji, which is a really good read, died of Parkinson's complications exacerbated by COVID-19.

He was 86.

I wanted to note the death of author Sharon Kay Penman this morning at 6AM. She died in her sleep of a rare cancer.

>13 RBeffa: I saw that on a British medievalists FB group earlier today.

>13 RBeffa: It was very sad news. She had been struggling with a number of health issues for a while, but the latest one was breaking her arm. I now wonder whether it was due to the kind of cancer she had, that had only just been diagnosed.

>14 thornton37814: >15 Chatterbox: At some point bodies begin to fail and health issues pile on. I've seen it happen with friends and family. She was 75 years old I think.

Swedish playwright and poet Lars Norén has died. He contracted Covid-19 and died at the age of 76.

Kathleen Anne Goonan has died. She was 68.

Her Queen City Jazz was a beautiful, amazing read.

>18 richardderus: Oh, too young. I loved that book as well as her The Bones of Time. I have four of her books in my library.

RIP Hal Holbrook I saw him do his "Mark Twain Tonight" performance live twice....unforgettable.

Interviewer: “How old are you?”

Mr. Twain: “Nineteen in June.”

Int: “Whom do you consider the most remarkable man you ever met?”

T: “George Washington.”

I: “But how could you have ever met George Washington if you’re only nineteen years old?”

T: “If you know more about me than I do, what do you ask me for?”

>20 laytonwoman3rd: - I never saw him perform live but did see some of his films. Quite a life! Two other greats lost last week were Cicely Tyson, and Cloris Leachman, both also in their 90s.

>20 laytonwoman3rd: I just saw the notise about Holbrook. Very sad, but at least he had a very long life. Such an actor! All the President's Men is one of my all-time favourite films and he was so great in it.

>22 PawsforThought: Oh, yes...that was a great movie. We re-watched it sometime last year, and it holds up well. I also loved him in Midway, although that wasn't a great movie.

RIP Christopher Plummer.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/feb/05/christopher-plummer-dies-sound-of-m...

>24 Caroline_McElwee: - So sad. He was one of the greats

>24 Caroline_McElwee: Another great one gone.

>24 Caroline_McElwee: Very sad news. Safe journey home, Captain von Trapp.

A reminder of Christopher Plummer's career

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55738560

He was pretty amusing in one of his last performances too 'Knives Out'.

Sad for me...That Obscure Object of Desire, a 1977 landmark film adapted from the 1898 novel The Woman and the puppet was such an amazing and weird exploration of lust and love and the depressing power of obsession. Jean-Claude Carrière, who adapted the story (among many others) for Luis Buñuel, has died at 89.

Bruce Berger, essayist and environmental activist of the desert Southwestern US, has died. He was 82.

There Was a River was a very good study of how we've altered the world.

Chick Corea has passed - one of my very favorite musicians. Can’t even describe the breadth of his music.

>31 drneutron: A force of nature. What musicianship!

Lawrence Ferlinghetti has died. He was 101.

Georges Bonnet has also died. He was also 101.

1919 was a great year for long-lived poets, apparently.

Well, you can't complain at 101. I got my bro to buy me a volume of Ferlinghetti's poetry in City Lights, when he was in San Fran some years ago. 'Don't let that horse' is one of my favourite poems. RIP Lawrence.

I think Bonnet may have been part of the James Joyce/Sylvia Beach coterie. His name is familiar from a book I read about Beach a couple of years ago.

Hard to argue that he was robbed of his due innings.

Margaret Maron, author of like eleventeen mystery novels featuring Deborah Knott, as well as more featuring Sigrid Harald, has died. She was 82 and had suffered a series of debilitating strokes.

>36 richardderus: Awww...she is one of my favorite go-to comfort mystery reads of all time. I didn't realize she was that old, nor that she had been ill. I know she brought the Deborah Knott series to a close a few years ago, and had pretty much stopped writing about Sigrid long before that. Sadly, I've read them all.

>36 richardderus: Thanks Richard. Sad news as I really enjoyed her books that I've read - think I have a couple of Sigrid Haralds left and a number of books in the Deborah Knott series that I own and can find (I don't have any of the ones published later, probably after about 2004, though the date may be slightly later than that). A friend on another online book community, who lived in NYC and then Florida, sadly also now dead, kindly obtained 2 of the Sigrid Harald books to help me complete my collection.

Also a great year for artists. One Japanese printmaker I knew died at the impressive age of 107. She produced remarkable work (was a contemporary of Rothko, and included in abstract expressionist shows). Her Tokyo gallerists, the Tolman family, introduced me to her in the 1980s and I ended up owning one or two pieces (both of which are now in my mother's possession, I think). She remained creative up to her final years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/arts/toko-shinoda-dead.html

Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth
died today. Also The Dot and the Line both favorites of mine.

>40 quondame: Sad to see, Susan.

I remember reading The Phantom Tollbooth to the kids years ago.

Oh, very sad! That was an occasional reread for me as a child.

>40 quondame: Oh I'm sorry to hear that. The Phantom Tollbooth is a favorite of mine as well.

Sad loss of Nawal El Saadawi.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/21/nawal-el-saadawi-trailblazing-egyp...

>44 Caroline_McElwee: I have not even heard of her! But having just read the Guardian article, I intend to read some of her work. What a marvellous woman.

George Segal has died. A funny man, and he played a mean banjo, too.

>47 laytonwoman3rd: nooo!

>47 laytonwoman3rd: Thank you, wonderful article!

Beverly Cleary has died at the accomplished age of 104
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/beverly-cleary-dead/2021/03/26/a...

>50 norabelle414: Thanks, Nora...I just came here to post that, and I'm so glad you got here first. I really didn't want to do three in a row.

>50 norabelle414: 😢😢😢

Hans Küng has died. His huge productivity will always inspire awe and his 95 years were not in any way wasted.

Definitely a man I respected. A sad day, for sure.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh has died at 99.

John Naisbitt died at 92. Megatrends is influencing politics and economics even yet, thirty-nine years on. His life was very interesting.

Sad to see the passing of Walter Mondale. A man of integrity and an able VEEP. I reckon he would have done much better than his Commander-in-Chief. Far too straightforward to be a hugely successful modern politician.

Also Lyn McDonald has died. He First World War contributions chronicling the stories of those who took part are, in my view, very important.

>57 PaulCranswick: Poor Fritz, he had some bad political luck.

>58 PaulCranswick: That's very sad, but she did so much that will live on!

Joe Long of The Four Seasons died of COVID today. Remember Let's Hang On? Joe was bass on that.

Tommy DeVito of the same era's Four Seasons died of it last September. Smoking and being old ain't a great way to meet this plague.

>60 richardderus: Richard and on the same day that Les McKeown the leader of the Bay City Rollers passed away.

Who remembers Bye Bye Baby from the mid-1970s? Huge in the UK for a couple of years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVxAj-Mis6o

I learned today that the editor of probably my favourite local newspaper (most other offerings are very low quality here now), the Camden New Journal (that's Camden, North London, the borough that runs from Holborn and the edges of the West End and the City through Kings Cross, Euston, Camden Town, Kentish Town, Hampstead etc), has died aged 89. Apparently he was trying to shape how he was remembered right up to the end of his life.

He was also a sort of old friend of my dad's - they both spent time in the 1960s living at and working for the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing, though my parents came home to the UK in 1965, and I think Eric Gordon remained a communist of sorts, albeit a very critical one, all his life.

http://camdennewjournal.com/article/eric-gordon-tributes-to-camdens-great-chroni...

>61 PaulCranswick: We're old
O L D
decrepit & declining fast
*sob*

>63 richardderus: You children quit yer moanin'.

>64 laytonwoman3rd: agreed. I'm able to get out of bed every morning and go to work, weed my gardens, read, hear birdsong...and I remember the 60's. I'm blessed.

RIP Olympia Dukakis.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/may/01/olympia-dukakis-dies-89-moonstruck-...

Hafid Bouazza, Dutch author of Paravion ("By Airmail"), died at 51. Hard to find but seek out the translated novel.

Also gone is Pieter Aspe, Flemish author of the Van In series of mysteries. They're all available in English...I think...there are 40 of them!

Rest in power, Kate Jennings...Moral Hazard is probably the best Alzheimer's novel yet.

And today's sad loss: Richard Halliwell, who designed the Warhammer game-Universe that so many read novels set in, has died.

Somehow I missed the news that Michael Collins took his last flight on April 28th. I hope he is still Carrying the Fire. Time for me to read that again.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/statements-on-passing-of-michael-collins

>70 RBeffa: thanks for letting us know, I missed it as well. I do remember watching Apollo 11's mission, "live".

Eric Carle has passed. We really enjoyed some of his books with our kids. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/970974320/eric-carle-creator-of-the-very-hungry-c...

>72 RBeffa: - I was just about to post this very news. So sad. His books were perennial favourites in my classroom over the years.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/eric-carle-very-hungry-caterpillar-death-1...

And two days after Eric Carle passed, we lost Lois Ehlert:

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/1000742114/chicka-chicka-boom-boom-illustrator-lo...

>74 tymfos: - Oh no. The books of both these wonderful artists played a prominent role in my classroom. Our school library had a wonderful video of Ehlert, a documentary I guess, where she talked about how she got her ideas and how she made her art. We used their styles as jumping-off points for some of our own class art projects. Both Carle and Ehlert leave wonderful legacies.

Sad news: Edward de Bono has died at 88. He invented the L-game in The Five-Day Course in Thinking. It was a Big Deal in the 1970s.

Lucina Riley, author of the very popular The Seven Sisters series, has died.
She was only 55, turns out she was battling cancer in the last 4 years.

Janet Malcolm, long-time contributor to The New Yorker and author of The Journalist and the Murderer as well as The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, has died. She was 87.

Patricia Reilly Giff passed away Tuesday.

>79 bell7: bummer. I have one of her books sitting waiting to be read.

Stephen Dunn, poet, has died at 86.

I read Looking for Holes in the Ceiling in the 1970s and was, while not blown away, deeply intrigued about a male poet who wrote lyrically if angrily about "The Rapist".

Ecologist and Botanist Michael G. Barbour died on January 7th of this year. He was the author of a number of textbooks as well as more general ecology and plant books. I had him as a professor at UC Davis early in his career and he was one of the best. https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/news/obituary-michael-g-barbour-beloved-in...

William F. Nolan, author of Logan's Run has died. He was 93.

AND Joe McKinney, author of The Red Empire and Other Stories and other award-winning horror fiction, has died. He was a shockingly young 52.

Ann Rinaldi, author of many YA novels including the Civil-War tale Girl in Blue, has died. She was 86.

{touchy touchstone won't stick on the correct book! it's this one: https://www.librarything.com/work/95130}

Roberto Calasso, publisher of Adelphi Edizioni, author of The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony among others, has died. He was 80.

>86 richardderus: I see I had a binge of buying his books in 2013. Must have read an article about him. Still to be read. 80 still feels too young these days Richard.

>81 richardderus: I missed that one, RD. One of our number who rarely posts now, Mary Beth, once told me a story of how Dunn lectured at her college and give her a lift in a taxi as it was on the way to the airport where he was rushing to. Based on her anecdote I ordered one of his collections (which was better than average in fairness). It also resulted in:

STEPHEN DUNN

It was Mary Beth who mentioned you
as you had shared her taxi –

The image that intrudes is flaxen hued
as you crest hillocks past darkening cornfields;
meter ticking,
wheels turning
an inevitable course ending with a terminal beginning.

In delicious poetic counterpoint;
as you write of place and the textures of home,
your book has travelled half a world into my hands.

>88 PaulCranswick: A touching tribute, PC. Lovely work.

>87 Caroline_McElwee: It does feel too young, doesn't it? It's so very hard to squeeze in the wanna-reads!

I found out via the Bookseller Twitter feed that Clare Dunkel, AKA Mo Hayder had passed away after a fight with Motor Neurone Disease. Sadly she was diagnosed on 22nd Dec 2020 but the disease progressed rapidly and she passed away on the 28th July 2021 aged 59, leaving her husband and daughter. RIP Clare aka Mo.

>90 johnsimpson: Oh, that is sad. I've only read one of her novels, which sounded quite different from the others in content - probably just as violent and disturbing as her serial killer stories set in the UK sounded to be (NB that's my impression of them and may be wrong). I heard her speak some years ago at an event, I think the Harrogate Crime Festival, about her novel Tokyo which has a present and a past storyline, but the historical part is about the Japanese invasion of Naning during the WWII>

Sad news that singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith has died at 68.

>92 elkiedee: Terribly sad news, Luci. i was celebrating her music on my thread a few short weeks ago.

>93 PaulCranswick: I remember that conversation. I think she's very much the kind of singer-songwriter who appeals very much to bookworms - lots of stories evoked in her songs.

RIP, Tom T. Hall.

Old Dogs, and Children, and Watermelon Wine

>95 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for alerting me to this Linda. I've been playing Nanci Griffith albums for a week and watching videos. Nanci's music was close to my heart and affected me much differently than Tom T. For one thing I probably saw Nanci in concert half a dozen times. However in my country phase of music listening in the 80's my wife and I listened to and enjoyed Tom T Hall an awful lot on the radio. He's a great storyteller and had a great voice for it. I'm really sorry he's gone but he left a great legacy.

>96 RBeffa: It just feels like the music world is shrinking. We still listen to a lot of country music, on satellite radio when traveling. But I've been binging a little on Nanci's stuff on-line since she left us, after neglecting her for a while.

>96 RBeffa: & >97 laytonwoman3rd: Me too. I love storytelling and few were better in popular song at telling a tale than Nanci Griffith. I have most of her albums but my favourite is a re-recording of some of her songs from 1999 "The Dust Bowl Symphony".

Both her and Tom T. will be sorely missed.

What a terrible month for Kentuckian music (and American country music in general) with the passing now of Don Everly. He and his brother gave me loads of enjoyment as a boy with my twin singing along to the 8-Track as my father sped grumpily along West Yorkshire roads.

>99 PaulCranswick: Dreeeeam, dream, dream, dream. I liked the Everly's as a kid too Paul. Trouble is, we are now at the age to see many of our youthful favourites departing.

>99 PaulCranswick: In my case, it was my daughter and me singing along with their cassette as I drove her to school.

>100 Caroline_McElwee: That is true, Caroline. I am at the stage where I refresh the obit page in the Guardian on a daily basis!

>101 laytonwoman3rd: So Sad was my favourite and my brother loved Bird Dog as I recall.

>99 PaulCranswick: >102 PaulCranswick: The hits just keep on coming don't they. Here's that Guardian obit for reference https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/22/us-music-star-don-everly-dies-aged...

When I got my first transistor radio as a child I used to lie awake with the radio snugged against my ear. I wouldn't let myself go to sleep until I heard Cathy's Clown.

There goes another link to my youth. "Wake Up, Little Susie!" "That'll Be the Day!"

The Kingston Trio sang, "Running through the trees from the Everlys......"

So good for so long!

>102 PaulCranswick: I've always found the obituaries page one of the most interesting bits of the newspaper. Radio 4 has an obituaries programme as well, Last Word.

>105 elkiedee: Always, Luci?! My interest is certainly increasing!

>105 elkiedee: Me too! I've turned to the obituary pages first for at least 30 years. (I will also admit to clipping and collecting. Ahem.) I find it intriguing how the writing style has changed over the years. As an amateur genealogist, I'm frequently disappointed by the lack of good information in some of the really old ones "He is survived by his wife and grown children." (Who shall remain nameless.) You'd almost think identity theft was a 19th century problem, rather than a 21st century one!

>105 elkiedee:, >106 PaulCranswick:, >107 laytonwoman3rd: - There was a terrific documentary film a few years ago, called Obit, about the NYT obits and the characters who write them. Worth seeking out if you can find it. I'd watch it again.

>108 jessibud2: Oh, thanks, ShelleY! I will see if I can find that.

>109 laytonwoman3rd: It looks like Kanopy has it ...

Thanks, Laura. It's available through Prime as well.

So sad to hear about the death of Charlie Watts. Such an iconic figure. I must confess, though, I always though him one of the 5 ugliest men of rock and roll, 4 of whom were Rolling Stones. Any guesses on the 5th?

But a great drummer. A snazzy dresser. A jazz enthusiast.

>112 ronincats:, Hi Roni, Iggy Pop.

>112 ronincats: Steven Tyler

>115 laytonwoman3rd: - Ha! I agree with that one!

Steven Tyler it is!

>117 ronincats: Too easy! What else have ya got?

Sad day today. Gunilla Bergström, author of the Alfons books (Alfie Atkins in English) for children has died. She was 79.

Like many others of my generation and older, in Sweden and abroad, Alfons was a great part of my childhood - both in book form and on TV. He had a life and a family that was like many real children's lives and families, but that had rarely been showed in media before.

A long career has left us with many, many reasons to remember Ed Asner with smiles.

>120 richardderus: - Oh, this makes me so sad. He was the same age as my dad would have been if he had not died many years ago.

I saw a film, maybe Asner's last, I am not sure, at this year's Toronto Jewish Film Festival. It is called Tiger Within, about a Holocaust survivor and a homeless teen, and the unlikely and unusual friendship between them. It was heart-wrenching and for me, sometimes difficult to watch but he was just so... Ed Asner. Tough and soft, all at once. RIP, to a great talent.

You can see some clips here:
https://tigerwithin.info/

Oh!

We've lost Gary Paulsen.

>123 laytonwoman3rd: It's very sad indeed.

>123 laytonwoman3rd: nooo!!!!! 😭😭😭

>123 laytonwoman3rd: Such sad news! Both of my girls loved Hatchet when we read it for school.

>126 alcottacre: And my Daniel, too. If fact all of the Brian books.

>127 Crazymamie: I suspect a generation is going to mourn the death of Gary Paulsen. I know I am and I am not even from that generation!

>128 alcottacre: neither am I. Back in the mid 1980's I was a mother of young children, about the same time Paulsen started publishing, and attracting the Newbery Award committee.

>129 fuzzi: It is just so sad coming to this page and realizing all that has been lost just in the course of this year!

Colin Powell has died of Covid complications.

>131 laytonwoman3rd: I'm not too surprised, given his age.

Some obituaries seem to leave out the fact that he also had cancer of the white blood cells, which absolutely destroys the body's ability to fight off infection.

I met General Powell once when I was working in Washington, and he was lovely - warm and approachable and kind to an awkward 20-year old intern.

>131 laytonwoman3rd:, >132 richardderus: & >133 norabelle414: A decent man from an era where politicians across the aisle can still find things to respect in each other.

>133 norabelle414: I had to dig around to find some info on that---I was pretty sure he had some form of cancer. I think it's a disservice not to mention that in the reports, which sure made a point of his being fully vaccinated. Yeah he was...BUT...he was also in a very high risk category.

>136 laytonwoman3rd: It's so important to clarify, because people are already trying to use his death as evidence that the COVID vaccine does not work.

>137 norabelle414: Absolutely.

Jerry Pinkney has passed away.

>139 bell7: - I have recently been reading a few books written and illustrated by his son and daughter-in-law. Such talent, that family.

Brilliant actress - Martha Henry

Floyd Salas, author of Tattoo the Wicked Cross, died at 90. He was an East Bay legend.

Gunther from Friends died of prostate cancer today.

>143 richardderus: Gunther always made me sad, and now this.

Red Sox player and announcer Jerry Remy passed away from cancer.

His announcing, especially with Don Orsillo as a partner, was a huge part of my fan experience for probably the last 20 or so years.

Actor Dean Stockwell died Sunday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/quantum-leap-star-dean-stockwell-de...

>146 amanda4242: Fine actor. RIP Dean.

Graeme Edge, The poet drummer of the band "The Moody Blues" passed on today.

“When the white eagle of the North
Is flying overhead
And the browns, reds and golds of autumn
Lie in the gutter, dead
Remember then, the summer birds
With wings of fire flaying
Come to witness Spring's new hope
Born of leaves decaying
As new life will come from death
Love will come at leisure
Love of love, love of life
And giving without measure
Gives in return a wondrous yearn
Of a promise almost seen
Live hand-in-hand
And together we'll stand
On the threshold of a dream....”

>148 RBeffa: Lovely Ron. Graeme Edge was a class act in a class band.

Lee Maracle, celebrated and multi-award winning Canadian Indigenous writer, teacher, activist:

https://www.cbc.ca/books/celebrated-sto-lo-writer-and-activist-lee-maracle-dead-...

>150 jessibud2: You are the second person to bring this woman's passing to my attention, and I am sorry to say I had not heard of her before. An oversight I will be repairing as soon as possible. In general, I do not know enough about Canada's First Nations' art and history, in spite of the fact that my MIL comes from BC.

>149 PaulCranswick: Class act and band indeed. I'm glad I got to see them a couple times. Graeme seemed to have one good piece per album (maybe more sometimes?). Here's an early one:

"Late Lament"

Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white.
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion?

- Graeme Edge

Far less famous than Graeme Edge but just as belovèd is Caroline Roe aka Medora Sale. She has died, aged 84. Her Isaac of Girona novels were very enjoyable.

Wilbur Smith, thriller writer for decades, has died. He was 88.

>154 richardderus: Not surprising because of his age. I have enjoyed some of his books years ago and my wife was a moderate fan of his stories. I feel a little odd that I looked at a book of his today and thought about it for my next read.

>154 richardderus: & >155 RBeffa: I have read a number of his books and, although they are of their time, he was always worth a read. I might read something of his next month in memoriam.

>156 PaulCranswick:, >155 RBeffa: He was quite old, indeed, and so I'd just sort of assumed he was immune to the appeal of death. Sadly....

Robert Bly dead at 94; Noah Gordon at 95. The 1920s bred 'em tough, didn'it.

>158 richardderus: I've read a couple by Noah Gordon.

Yep, the greatest generation went through a lot, the Great Depression, World War II, made them tough. My dad is 93, still doing well.

>159 fuzzi: Happily, your Dad's got every reason to expect a few more years!
***
Stephen Sondheim has died at 91. Sad that such a monadnock of musical theater has gone.

And equally saddening is the news that Doug MacLeod, author of the blackly funny The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher, has died at 62. SIXTY TWO!! Revolting!

>160 richardderus: - I don't think I realized that Sondheim was 91! But what a legacy he has left!

>160 richardderus: Send in the clowns ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOUrnUktTjU

>162 RBeffa: Very good. Thank you.

>160 richardderus: RIP Maestro Sondheim.

>162 RBeffa: So long since I heard that voice, thanks Ron, I may sneak a little more into my weekend.

>162 RBeffa: My own favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd5v0cTM8UA

"Company" was such fun!

>165 richardderus: That is a fun one. Sondheim was certainly a giant among us mere mortals.

>164 Caroline_McElwee: I'm glad you liked it Caroline. Frank was a consummate artist.

Yesterday Spanish writer Almudena Grandes died of cancer, she was 61.

re Sondheim. There was a lovely tribute to him on CBS Sunday Morning this morning. I'd post a link but for some reason, the site is suddenly not allowing me to access it unless I disable my ad blocker, which I will not. So go to the site yourselves and see it. It was very good.

RIP Antony Sher.

I saw him last on stage a couple of years ago in Kunene and the King.

>169 Caroline_McElwee: I never had the pleasure to see him in the theatre but I do remember him playing the lead role in The History Man. A very, very good actor.

Her name was Joanne
And she lived in a meadow by a pond
And she touched me for a moment
With a look that spoke to me of her sweet love
Then the woman that she was drove her on with desperation
And I saw as she went, a most hopeless situation
For Joanne and the man and the time that made them both run

Michael Nesmith has died at 78.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/michael-nesmith-monkee-seasons-dies-78-81679...

Anne Rice has died at the ange of 80 of complications from a stroke.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59627125

>173 PawsforThought: Has she joined Lestat...?

bell hooks passed away in her home at the age of 69. Words could never describe the ways in which she made the world a better place.

https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article256616171.html

>175 norabelle414: Sad news and far too young.

Irish poet Thomas Kinsella has died. He was 93.

Their writing talent was expressed in song lyrics and musicianship, but

on 22 December 2002 Joe Strummer, best known as the singer with The Clash, died suddenly at the age of 50.

And another sad anniversary a few days ago: on 18 December 2000 Kirsty MacColl, whose many fantastic songs included There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis, Don't Come the Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim, Walking Down Madison and so many others, was killed while swimming with her sons by a speedboat - she was only 40. She also famously covered Billy Bragg's A New England and The Kinks' Days.

I think both wrote songs that told and inspired many stories.

>177 richardderus: Sad to see that, RD. Kinsella was a very underrated poet who released almost 30 collections and translations from the Gaelic.

His brother the composer John Kinsella died barely a month ago.

I just saw that Joan Didion has died: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/joan-didion-peerless-prose-stylist-170937626...

I loved The Year of Magical Thinking when I read it several years ago.

Oh that is so sad about Didion! And Kinsella, well, Irish plus poet...

>180 alcottacre: Joan Didion is so frequently referenced by accomplished writers, she will be sorely missed. I too loved The Year of Magical Thinking and must read more of her work.

>180 alcottacre: RIP Joan.

RIP Desmond Tutu, who left the world in a better state than he found it. And he did everything with joy and humour.

Artist (and Professor) Wayne Thiebaud has passed on at age 101. He was at UC Davis when I attended in the 1970's and having a modern artist of his stature there (along with Robert Arneson) was something to be proud of. I first encountered his work at a small exhibition on campus and was forever a fan.

Here is a nice article from the Sacramento Bee https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/obituaries/article256855612.html?fbclid=IwAR2N...

Keri Hulme, author of The Bone People, has died in New Zealand on the 27th of December.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/127396715/keri-hulme-titan-of-nz-lit...

Crime writer Andrew Vachss died yesterday, the 27th.

Very sad to learn that Ben McFall, the long, long, long-time head of Fiction for The Strand, has died at 73.

Lots of reports of this - Betty White died just a few weeks ahead of her 100th birthday.

>189 drneutron: - I just read this! A legend and almost the last of an era. I think Mel Brooks may be the last one.

I was among those who truly thought she'd live forever! So sad...:-(

>189 drneutron: This was the first thing I was confronted with when I opened the internet this morning. Very sad news, so sad she didn't quite make it to 100