“James Purdy, whose dark, often savagely comic fiction evoked a psychic American landscape of deluded innocence, sexual obsession, violence and isolation, died Friday in Englewood, N.J. He was 94 and lived in Brooklyn Heights. . . . “Wayward and unclassifiable, Mr. Purdy, the author of the novels ‘Malcolm’ and ‘The Nephew,’ labored at the margins [...]
Archive for the ‘Obituaries’ Category
R.I.P. – James Purdy (1914-2009)
Posted in Books, Brooklyn, Literature, Obituaries, Plays & Playwrights, Writers & Writing on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Happy Birthday “Ti Jean”: Remembering Jack Kerouac
Posted in Birthdays, Blues & Jazz, Books, Literature, New England, Obituaries, Poets & Poetry, Popular Culture, Writers & Writing on March 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Jack Kerouac, author of “On the Road” and progenitor of the Beat Generation as well as subsequent generations of literary dreamers, was born on this date in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. He died in 1969 at age 47. Gilbert Millstein’s 1957 New York Times review of “On the Road,” which Dwight Garner called “probably the most [...]
R.I.P. – Robert Guskind (1958-2009)
Posted in Brooklyn, DUMBO, New York City, Obituaries, Urban Affairs, World Wide Web, Writers & Writing on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Bob Guskind, the legendary Brooklyn blogger and founder of Gowanus Lounge, has died: “After days of speculation inside and outside the blogosphere, much-liked journalist Robert Guskind died on Wednesday, the city Medical Examiner confirmed this morning. . . . “In his prime, Guskind’s blog focussed a keen eye on city development projects with an objectivity [...]
R.I.P. – Horton Foote (1916-2009)
Posted in Cinema, Literature, Obituaries, Plays & Playwrights, Writers & Writing on March 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Horton Foote, who chronicled a wistful American odyssey through the 20th century in plays and films mostly set in a small town in Texas and who left a literary legacy as one of the country’s foremost storytellers, died on Wednesday in Hartford. He was 92 and lived in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Wharton, Tex. “Mr. [...]
R.I.P. – Edward Upward (1903-2009)
Posted in Books, Literature, Obituaries, Poets & Poetry, Writers & Writing on February 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“With Mr. Upward’s death, on Feb. 13 in Pontefract, England, the last living link was broken to writers like [Christopher] Isherwood, W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender who shaped English literature in the 1930s. In reporting Mr. Upward’s death, London newspapers said that at 105 he was Britain’s oldest author. “His influence on his contemporaries was both [...]
R.I.P. – Alfred A. Knopf Jr. (1918-2009)
Posted in Books, Business, Obituaries, Writers & Writing on February 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Alfred A. Knopf Jr., who left the noted publishing house run by his parents to become one of the founders of Atheneum Publishers in 1959, died on Saturday. He was 90, the last of the surviving founders, and lived in New York City.” (via NY Times)
R.I.P. – Robert Anderson (1917-2009)
Posted in Books, New York City, Obituaries, Plays & Playwrights, Writers & Writing on February 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Robert Anderson, a playwright whose intimate emotional dramas like ‘Tea and Sympathy’ and ‘I Never Sang for My Father’ attracted big names to the Broadway stage if not always substantial audiences to Broadway theaters, died Monday at home in Manhattan. He was 91. . . . “Mr. Anderson was a contemporary of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, and [...]
R.I.P. – Dewey Martin (1940-2009)
Posted in Obituaries, Popular Culture, Popular Music, Rock 'n' Roll on February 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“Dewey Martin, drummer for the short-lived but long-resonating rock band Buffalo Springfield whose career after the group split never ignited like those of his former band mates Neil Young and Stephen Stills, has died. He was 68.” (via LA Times)
R.I.P. – Milton Parker (1919-2009)
Posted in Business, Food & Wine, Jewish Life, New York City, Obituaries on February 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Milton Parker, who brought long lines and renown to the Carnegie Deli in Manhattan with towering pastrami sandwiches and a voluble partner who kibitzed with common folk and celebrities alike, died in Queens on Friday. He was 90 and lived in Manhattan. . . . ‘In the history of delicatessens, Milton Parker’s Carnegie Deli caused [...]
The Street Vendor Project & The Death of A Salesman
Posted in Business, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Food & Wine, New York City, Obituaries on February 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times ran an obituary yesterday about Joseph Ades, “the white-haired man with the British accent, the expensive European suits and shirts,” who had been a fixture among the vendors at the Greenmarket in Manhattan’s Union Square. I was drawn to the article not because of a remembered encounter with Ades but because [...]
Updike Re-Redux & “The Zen of Porn”
Posted in Books, Literature, Obituaries, Sex & Gender, World Wide Web, Writers & Writing on February 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
While searching the web for articles on John Updike I was amused to learn that Updike’s “The Widows of Eastwick” had been shortlisted for this past year’s Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award (he did not win, although he did receive a Lifetime Achievement Award). One link led to another, which led to my thinking about [...]
R.I.P. – Ingemar Johansson (1932-2009)
Posted in Obituaries, Sports on January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Ingemar Johansson, the Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in 1959, has died. Johansson was 76.” (via ESPN) [Sometimes a person, or an event, sticks in your head in ways you don't necessarily appreciate until much later, perhaps not until the person dies or the event [...]
Updike Redux
Posted in Books, Literature, Obituaries, Writers & Writing on January 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Joseph O’Neill, author of last year’s highly regarded novel, “Netherland” — one of the finest contemporary novels about New York City and one of the few novels “about” 9/11 worth reading (my very short list would also include “Saturday,” by Ian McEwan and “The Emperor’s Children” by Claire Messud) — writes of the debt owed Updike [...]
R.I.P. – John Updike (1932–2009)
Posted in Baseball, Books, Literature, Obituaries, Sports, Writers & Writing on January 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »
“My subject is the American Protestant small town middle class,” Mr. Updike told Jane Howard in a 1966 interview for Life magazine. “I like middles,” he continued. “It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules.” [My first encounter with Updike’s writings was during the summer of 1970 when I was required to [...]
