It always saddens me to post the annual list of literary figures we’ve lost during the current year, but the task is especially painful on a day that has seen the announcement of the death of Betty White. For many years I compiled an annual list of the obituaries of literary figures. But compiling the …
Unlike Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and other pioneers of literary journalism, Didion did not become a character in her own stories. A pale wisp of a woman (90 pounds on a 5-foot-2-inch frame), with drab hair and wide-set eyes often hidden behind aviator glasses, she was by her own description “shy to the …
Joan Didion dies; writer chronicled culture with cool detachment – Los Angeles Times Read More »
[Katie] Roiphe put it this way: “She takes apart the official line, the accepted story, the court transcript like a mechanic takes apart a car engine and shows us how it works; she narrates how the stories we tell ourselves are made from the vanities and jealousies and weaknesses of their players. This is her …
Beverly Cleary, beloved and prolific author of children’s books, dies at 104 Obituary from the Los Angeles Times. Larry McMurtry, Novelist of the American West, Dies at 84 Obituary from the New York Times. I Always Write in the Past: The Millions Interviews André Aciman Here’s a fascinating article in which André Aciman talks about …
Source: V.S. Naipaul, Nobel Prize-winning author, dies at 85, family says
“If you cannot or will not imagine the results of your actions, there’s no way you can act morally or responsibly.” –Ursula K. Le Guin Source: Ursula K. Le Guin, Acclaimed for Her Fantasy Fiction, Is Dead at 88 – The New York Times
This is always my least favorite post of the year. Here’s a list of people the literary world lost in 2017, including, where available, a link to an obituary and the date of death. John Berger, 1/2 Nat Hentoff, 1/7 Clare Hollingworth, 1/10 William Peter Blatty, 1/12 William A. Hilliard, 1/16 Peter Abrahams, 1/18 Byron …
Last Tuesday (12/27/2016), the day Carrie Fisher died, my Facebook feed was filled with lamentations about all the well-known people who had died in 2016. Later that day came the report of the death of Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, on Christmas Eve. And then the following day Carrie’s mother, Debbie Reynolds, died. Have …
She entered popular culture as a princess in peril and endures as something much more complicated and interesting. Many things, really: a rebel commander; a witty internal critic of the celebrity machine; a teller of comic tales, true and embellished; an inspiring and cautionary avatar of excess and resilience; an emblem of the honesty we …
Carrie Fisher, a Princess, a Rebel and a Brave Comic Voice – The New York Times Read More »
In 2016, we said good-bye to many literary luminaries. These authors have inspired us, challenged us to think deeply, and opened windows into the lives and struggles of others. Here we remember some of the award winners, trailblazers, and creators of beloved classics whose works will stand the test of time. Source: In Memoriam: 12 …
In Memoriam: 12 Authors We Lost Too Soon in 2016 Read More »
