Novelist John Updike died yesterday at age 76 of lung cancer. Hillel Italie of the AP describes him as a “Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire,” best known for his four ‘Rabbit’ novels.
Also in the Boston Globe [...]
michael crichton
Writer Michael Crichton died yesterday of cancer at age 66. He’s the author of The Andromeda Strain (1969), Jurassic Park (1990), and other novels, and the creator of the long-running medical drama series, ER. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University, studied anthropology at Cambridge University, and graduated from Harvard Medical School in [...]
Tagged crichton, death, medical thriller, obituary“Tony Hillerman, whose lyrical, authentic and compelling mystery novels set among the Navajos of the Southwest blazed innovative trails in the American detective story, died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, The Associated Press reported.
“He was 83 and lived in Albuquerque.
“The cause was pulmonary failure, according to the AP report.”
Much more at the NYT. Also [...]
Tagged crime novels, deaths. western U.S., hillerman, mysteries, novelist, obituaries, tony hillermanThe NYT reports:
“David Foster Wallace, whose darkly ironic novels, essays and short stories garnered him a large following and made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, was found dead in his California home on Friday, after apparently committing suicide, the authorities said.
“Mr. Wallace, 46, best known for his sprawling 1,079-page novel [...]
Thanks to Sarah for noticing that Maine/Dutch crime writer Janwillem van de Wetering has died, on 4 July, in Maine, at age 77. Obits at Radio Netherlands, in Dutch at De Papieren Man, and lots of Dutch and Afrikaans language remembrances. Van de Wetering’s entry at Wikipedia.
15 July Update: Finally, an obit in the NYT.
Children’s book illustrator and author Tasha Tudor, “whose delicate and dreamy artwork was featured in about 80 books, including a 1944 edition of Mother Goose that was so successful it enabled her to buy a farm and create a lifestyle rooted in the early 19th century,” has died at age 92 of complications related to [...]
British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died in in Sri Lanka on 19 March 2008, which, for those of us in the U.S., is tomorrow, which seems appropriate somehow. Clarke was 90 and had published more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and the short story The Sentinel, which was made into the film [...]
Conservative commentator, author and journalist (founder of National Review) Bill Buckley has died today at age 82 after suffering with diabetes and emphysema. Among his books are God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of ‘Academic Freedom’ (1951), McCarthy and His Enemies (1954, with L. Brent Bozell), spy novels featuring Blackford Oakes, Right Reason: A [...]
Phyllis Whitney, prolific writer of romantic suspense for adults and novels and mysteries for young adults, died yesterday at age 104 of pneumonia. Her last book, Amethyst Dreams (1997), set on Topsail Island, NC, was published when she was 94. She was just getting around to working on her autobiography.
Obituary in the NYT.
Whitney’s website.
George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman adventure series, published from 1969 to 2005, died of cancer today in England. More from the AP, Guardian, and The Independent.