Blaize Clement, R.I.P. 1932-2011

Popular mystery writer Blaize Clement has died, according to a July 27th announcement on her "Kitty Litter" blog by her son, Jack. The author of the cozy mystery series starring pet sitter Dixie Hemingway, Clement had been in hospice care and lost her battle with cancer on July 20th.

Since being diagnosed, Clement had continued her writing work, completing one stand-alone mystery/thriller -- I, Malcolm -- and a new volume in the Dixie Hemingway series -- The Cat Sitter's Pajamas. Clement made it known that she wanted her son to continue the Hemingway series, and he has announced that he has signed on for one additional volume (and possibly more), moving forward with his mother's characters.

Blaize Clement's entry in Wikipedia

Official Blaize Clement website

L.A. Banks, R.I.P. 1959-2011

Popular paranormal fantasy author L.A. Banks (a.k.a. Leslie Esdaile) has lost her recent battle with cancer, according to her publisher's website in the following post this morning:

"Several authors have reported today that Paranormal Fantasy author L.A. Banks has just passed away. Banks had been fighting a battle with cancer for some time, one that she tragically lost today. Banks was known to the science fiction and fantasy community primarily for her Crimson Moon werewolf series as well as The Vampire Huntress Legend series. Under a variety of pen names, L.A. Banks also wrote in several other genres including crime, thriller, and romance.

L.A. Banks was a witty, upbeat author who brought energetic and strong sensibilities to her work. The fields of SFF and her fans will miss her deeply."

L.A. Banks entry in Wikipedia

Official L.A. Banks website

R.I.P. - Lilian Jackson Braun, 1913 - 2011

Best-selling and beloved mystery writer, Lilian Jackson Braun, died yesterday at the age of 97.

Known for her "The Cat Who..." mystery series, featuring report James Qwilleran and his Siamese cats Koko and Yum-Yum, Jackson first broke into the mystery publishing field with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, in 1966. Two additional volumes in the series followed in 1967 and 1968. Braun then took a hiatus from publishing for 18 years, until retiring from her job with the Detroit Free Press. In 1986, "The Cat Who..." series returned to press and she averaged one new book per year until 2007, when The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers was published. That ended up becoming her final novel, as ill health prevented her from continuing work on her promised next volume, The Cat Who Smelled Smoke.

Here are some biographical portraits of Braun and her literary creations:

L.A. Times Obituary for Lilian Jackson Braun

Wikipedia pages for: Braun | The Cat Who series

Lilian Jackson Braun obit at www.legacy.com

New York Times Obituary for Lilian Jackson Braun

Theodore Sorensen, 1928-2010

Theodore "Ted" Sorensen, noted speech writer for President John F. Kennedy, and a lawyer and political pundit in the decades since Kennedy's assassination, died Sunday in New York at the age of 82.

Sorensen, born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, and later a graduate with both undergrad and law degrees from the University of Nebraska, went to Washington, D.C. with absolutely no political experience nor any experience of the world outside of Nebraska, in 1951. Less than two years later, he was among the inner circle of Kennedy, then the young Senator from Massachusetts. He worked closely with Kennedy to draft a legislative program for the economic revitalization of New England. He was also closely involved in the writing of Kennedy's Pulitzer-prize-winning autobiography, Profiles in Courage (released in 1956).

When Kennedy made an outsider's run at the White House during the 1960 election, it was often only Kennedy and Sorensen who traveled across the country together, visiting each of the 50 states of the union. Sorensen drew on numerous sources for inspiration for Kennedy's speeches, the most famous of which was probably Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address in which he challenged American to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." As Kennedy's chief speech writer, Sorensen remained a staunch Kennedy policy advisor throughout the election and during Kennedy's time in office, and Sorensen was devastated at Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

For forty years following Kennedy's death, Sorensen practiced law in New York, and continued to write and give speeches, even past his 80th birthday. In 1970, Sorensen made a brief foray into politics himself, running for the Senate seat previously held by Robert Kennedy (until the latter's 1968 assassination). He was also nominated by Jimmy Carter to take over the C.I.A., until his pacifist views derailed that nomination.

Despite a stroke in 2001 that greatly reduced his eyesight, Sorensen remained active, and spent years finishing an autobiography that chronicled his time on the campaign trail with Kennedy and in the Kennedy White White, entitled Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History (released in 2007).

Read the excellent, detailed obituary on the New York Times website.

Dick Francis, 1920-2010

Popular and prolific British mystery writer Dick Francis -- whose experiences as a champion jockey in the 1940s and 1950s influenced the themes of his 40+ novels, died February 14, 2010, at his home in Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands.

Following his 1957 horse-racing autobiography, The Sport of Queens, Francis turned to fiction, crafting a series of equine-themed mystery/thrillers from 1962 to 2006 (with the assistance of his wife, until her death in 2000). Beginning in 2007, he is listed as co-authoring additional horse mysteries with his Son, Felix, who plans to continue his father's series.

Although he introduced a few repeating characters, most of Francis' novels were standalones. Fans loved his books for the accuracy of the horse-racing environments he depicted -- he was well-known for the extensive research he conducted prior to writing. Francis received numerous literary awards for his novels, and to-date is the only 3-time winner of the Edgar Award for best mystery novel (for Forfeit [1970], Whip Hand [1981] and Come to Grief [1996]). A handful of Francis' novels have been adapted to film or television (see below).

BBC News announcement of Francis' death

Official Dick Francis web site

Wikipedia page for Dick Francis (with complete list of credits)

FantasticFiction page for Dick Francis (with complete list of credits)

Internet Movie Database page for Dick Francis (with list of screen credits)

J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010

Reclusive American writer J.D. (Jerome David) Salinger -- author of the controversial yet classic novel, Catcher in the Rye, died January 78, 2010, at his home in Cornish, NH.

Although Salinger's literary output consisted of only three novels and a number of short stories, he is still considered one of the most prominent and influential American authors of the 20th century. For details, see the following links:

New York Times obit for Salinger

Wikipedia page for J.D. Salinger (detailed biography with complete list of credits)

Salinger's works in the Lincoln City Libraries online catalog

Robert B. Parker, 1932-2010

Best-selling and incredibly popular American mystery author Robert B. Parker -- creator of iconic Boston P.I. Spenser and more recent series featuring Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone (among others), died January 18, 2010, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Parker's death comes as a shock -- he was in relatively good health, and was found at his desk by his wife following her morning jog.

Parker was extremely prolific, producing over 50 novels, 37 of which featured the singularly-named Spenser, which also served as the inspiration for 1980s TV series Spenser For Hire (starring the late Robert Urich). Parker's first novel -- also his first Spenser -- was The Godwulf Manuscript, in 1973.

Parker had also developed three other regular series: Jesse Stone -- 9 books featuring a disgraced California cop who sets up shop as a small-town Police captain on the East Coast (starting in 1997) -- turned into a series of TV-movies starring Tom Selleck in the title role; Sunny Randall, 6 books featuring a female Boston P.I. (starting in 1999); and a western series featuring Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, which had reached 3 volumes from 2005 to 2009. Parker was also a huge fan of Raymond Chandler, and wrote two follow-up volumes to Chandler's works, one (Poodle Springs) completing an unfinished Chandler manuscript, and the 2nd (Perchance to Dream) completely original.

Parker is considered groundbreaking for developing the "thinking man's private eye", and opened doors for many of today's popular hard-boiled authors.

Boston Herald obit for Robert B. Parker

Washington Post obit for Robert B. Parker

Wikipedia page for Robert Parker (with complete list of credits)

FantasticFiction page for Robert Parker (with complete list of credits)

Internet Movie Database page for Robert B. Parker (with list of screen credits)

R.I.P. Elmer Kelton, 1926-2009

Popular American author of Westerns, Elmer Kelton, died August 22nd, 2009, in his hometown of San Angelo, Texas, at the age of 83.

Kelton was one of the best-known authors of traditional Western fiction in the 20th century, with literally dozens of titles published in a writing career that spanned over six decades. Kelton was a seven-time winner of Western writing's Spur Award, first taking home the trophy in 1957, and again most recently in 2002.

You can find more information about Kelton, his life and his works at the following links:

Official Elmer Kelton web site

San Angelo Standard Times

Wikipedia entry

Frank McCourt, R.I.P.

Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78.

See the entire obit at the New York Times web site.

Thomas M. Disch, R.I.P. 1940-2008

Thomas M. Disch, writer of hard-edged science fiction, social critic and poet, committed suicide in his New York City apartment on July 4th, 2008.

Born in the Midwest in 1940 (Des Moines) and raised in Minnesota's Twin Cities, Disch first connected with literature in high school classes, before being sidetracked by numerous jobs in multiple fields. By his twenties, Disch had moved to New York, ultimately taking classes at New York University. It was there that his writing finally kicked in, and although he worked a series of odd jobs to pay the rent, it was his short story and poetry writing that started to get him noticed in the literary world. His body of work ultimately included science fiction novels and stories, 10 poetry collections, plays, criticisms, an opera libretto for an adaptation of Frankenstein, gothic works and childrens' books.

His 1968 novel Camp Concentration is about an inmate in a US concentration camp who's treated with experimental drugs, and 1974's 334 is an experimental collection of linked stories all set in a New York City apartment complex. Disch' 1980 novella, The Brave Little Toaster was adapted into an animated film from Disney. His 1998 collection of essays, The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of won science fiction's Hugo Award for best non-fiction book of the year.

In recent years, Disch had maintained a blog at LiveJournal, where he continued to present original poetry and make acerbic observations on the world at large. Disch had suffered from depression at various times in his life, and the recent loss of his long time companion (and occasional writing partner) Charles Naylor, as well as a fight to maintain possession of his rent-controlled apartment, are rumored to have spurred him to take his own life.

Wikipedia entry on Thomas M. Disch

Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008, R.I.P.

Arthur C. Clarke, one of the last remaining giants from the formative years of science fiction literature, died on March 19, 2007 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the age of 90.

Clarke, the author of almost 100 books as both a non-fiction writer as well as a genre novelist, is probably best remembered for his work, 2001. He co-created the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, with director Stanley Kubrick, and went on to write the novel for the film, based mainly on his own shorter work "The Sentinel."

In the field of science fiction, Clarke was an influential trendsetter, who won most of the genre's highest awards, including: the Hugo, the Nebula, the International Fantasy Award, and the John W. Campbell Award. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1985. Key novels by Clarke include: Prelude to Space [1951], Childhood's End [1953], Earthlight [1955], A Fall of Moondust [1961], 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968 plus 3 follow-up volumes], Rendezvous With Rama [1973, plus sequels], Imperial Earth [1975], The Fountains of Paradise [1979], and The Songs of Distant Earth [1986 -- one of ACC's personal favorites]. He was also the master of the short story, with a dozen collections published over the years. Some of his short works are among the most republished short stories in genre history, including "Against the Fall of Night" and "The Star."

In addition to his fiction, Clarke was well-known for popularizing science for the masses. He was a strong proponent for the idea that technological developments were ultimately beneficial, and that humanity's destiny lay among the stars. Clarke is credited with inspiring the development of telecommunications satellites -- he first wrote about them in 1945, over a decade before they became a reality.

Clarke had suffered from post-polio syndrome for over 20 years, and for the last two decades most of his writing was in collaboration with younger writers, who took his detailed story ideas and fleshed them out. Clarke's passing leaves few of his contemporaries from science fiction's golden age still among the living, and fewer still with his landmark stature.

New York Times obit

BBC obit

LA Times obit

Arthur C. Clarke's credits at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

R.I.P. - Ira Levin

Ira Levin, American novelist and playwright, died on November 12, 2007 in New York City, at the age of 78.

Born and raised in New York City, Levin attended the prestigious Horace Mann high school, then both Drake University and New York University. He had known he wanted to be a writer since he was 15, and as a senior in college he submitted a script to a screenwriting contest that was ultimately produced as an episode of NBC's Lights Out. Levin spent his Army years writing training films for the armed services, then sequed into scripts for 1950s television.

Levin's first novel was 1953's A Kiss Before Dying, a mystery which ultimately won him the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best "first novel". Levin then focused on stage plays for a dozen years, authoring No Time for Sergeants, which helped launch the career of comic actor Andy Griffith. In 1967, he returned to the novel form, producing the darkly atmospheric horror novel Rosemary's Baby. Horror also dominated his next two novels, This Perfect Day (1970) and The Stepford Wives (1972). 1976 brought international thriller The Boys From Brazil, and Levin continued to write for the stage as well, producing Veronica's Room (1973) and perhaps his best-known play, Deathtrap (1978), a comic mystery, among others.

Though his output was less prodigious in more recent years, he managed the thriller Sliver in 1993 and Son of Rosemary: The Sequel to Rosemary's Baby in 1997. Levin may not have produced a huge number of novels, but his style influenced many other genre writers, including Peter Straub, Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk, and his works continue to entertain and thrill to this day.

Here are some links to additional Ira Levin information:

Ira Levin's works in the Lincoln City Libraries catalog

Ira Levin's entry in the Internet Movie Database
New York Times article on his death
Obituary in The Guardian

R.I.P. - Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer, one of the leading figures of what came to be known as The New Journalism in the 1960s through the 1980s, died November 10, 2007 at the age of 84.

Mailer was born Norman Kingsley, into a traditional Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey. Following a family move, Mailer had a typical upbringing in Brooklyn, NY, and eventually attended Harvard, starting in 1939. Graduating with an aeronautical engineering degree in 1943, Mailer was drafted into the U.S. Army, and served in the Philippines during WWII. Having become fascinated with writing while at Harvard, Mailer turned his experiences during the war into his first novel, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. This novel received critical and popular acclaim and has gone on to be listed as one of the Top 100 English Language Novels by the Modern Library.

Other prominent Mailer novels included Barbary Shore (1951), The Deer Park (1955), Ancient Evenings (1983), Harlot's Ghost (1991) and his most recent best-seller, The Castle in the Forest (2007).

Although the novel form was Mailer's favorite writing format, it is perhaps for his non-fiction books and essays that he will remain best known. His non-fiction often took an experimental "fiction-like" form, and his topics and views could be incendiary. Some of the non-fiction works for which he is reknowned would include: "The White Negro" (1957 essay), Advertisements for Myself (1959), The Armies of the Night (1968), The Fight (1975) and Why Are We At War? (2003). Mailer also wrote several noteworthy biographies of prominent individuals, including Marilyn: A Biography [Marily Monroe] (1973) and Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man (1995). He also dabbled in plays, screenplays, and film directing.

In his public life, Mailer became something of a political and social activist, running for Mayor of New York City on a radical platform, participating in anti-war activities opposing the Vietnam War, and lobbying on behalf of prison inmates. His personal life could be problematic -- he had 8 children from 6 marriages, and fought both drug and alcohol abuse at various times during his career.

In the end, whether readers agreed with his politics or not, he is considered an American original -- one of the more innovative and thought-provoking authors in the latter half of the 20th century, and a voice whose absence will be noted.

Here are some links to additional Norman Mailer information:

The Norman Mailer Society
Mailer's named essay, The White Negro
New York Times' obituary for Mailer