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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Writers I've Loved and Lost
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
When I found out Norah Lofts had died, I staggered out of the library in shock. I didn't know Catherine Cookson had gone ahead to that Newcastle in the sky until I read one of the fake ones written by the Catherine Cookson trust and thought the poor old thing had lost touch.
When I was growing up my mother got the Reader's Digest Condensed books in the mail and if I saw Victoria Holt or Philippa Carr on the spine, not knowing they were the same person, I got all excited knowing I had a good read in store.
Anna Gilbert, a little know writer of Victorian suspense passed away and took all her precious gems of delightful atmosphere with her.
Anyone else wearing mourning to the library?
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I'm still very sad about Douglas Adams. I wonder how many volumes would now be in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy, had he lived? And what other bizarre ideas he might have concocted? I could have gone for a whole series of Dirk Gently books instead of just two.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Fr Weber
Shipmate
# 13472
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Posted
Robertson Davies. So sad that the Toronto Trilogy will never be completed. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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"The Eucharist is not a play, and you're not Jesus."
--Sr Theresa Koernke, IHM
Posts: 2512 | From: Oakland, CA | Registered: Feb 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Dorothy Dunnett and Diana Wynne Jones.
I also really wish Dickens had survived long enough to finish "Edwin Drood". It looks pretty clear that Jasper murdered Edwin, but I want to know who Dick Datchery is and what's the secret of his hat.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Re "Edwin Drood":
IIRC, someone "completed" it in the '70s or '80s. I *think* this may have been the guy who said he channeled Dickens. Haven't read it.
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I've read at least two "finished" endings. Neither was very convincing.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Hilda of Whitby
Shipmate
# 7341
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Posted
W.G. Sebald. When I read about his death in a car crash in the NY Times in 2001, my heart stopped.
I second the mention of Robertson Davies.
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"Born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad."
Posts: 412 | From: Nickel City | Registered: Jun 2004
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MarsmanTJ
Shipmate
# 8689
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Posted
Brian Jacques was an author I loved as a teenager. And David Eddings, of course, whose later books decreased in quality (The Dreamer's series was awful), was nonetheless one of the masters of the art. I've long suspected that as he got older, Leigh did more of the writing and he did more plot outlining, and her writing was not nearly as good as his.
Posts: 238 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
I'm still very sad about Douglas Adams.
Me too.
Jane Austen died far too soon as well and I despise with a passion every attempt by others to write sequels - including Death Comes to Pemberley
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
Terry Pratchett is the most recent loss. If you haven't seen it, Neil Gaiman on Terry Pratchett is a warm reminisce. The lecture also includes him reading a new story which seems relevant to those reading the Demon thread.
I miss Patrick O'Brian and the world of Aubrey and Maturin.
R.A. Lafferty who mined a narrow vein of fantasy that was gold.
Avram Davidson
Iain Banks
Tony Hillerman
Rex Stout
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
Elizabeth Gaskell anf E. Nesbit, both wiriters I'd like to have met. Gaskell seemed to be just getting into her stride with Wives and Daughters, I wonder if she would have finished it in the way the BBC did where the heroine donned a 'good thick skirt' and went off exploring with her Darwin like husband.
More reecently Diana Wynne Jones and Jan Mark, both of whom I did meet.
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Meindert de Jong.
Wrote what is, IMO, one of the best children's books of all time - The Wheel on the School. It has illustrations by Maurice Sendak as well - absolutely magical.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
Loved it.
I also liked Paul Berna's "100 Million Francs" and "Flood Warning" (with amazing stylised monochrome illustrations), although the latter's moralistic message perhaps comes through a bit too strongly.
I suspect that Kaye Webb's editorial hand in Puffin Books had a lot to do with both the moral tone and literary worth of many of the children's books I read during the early 1960s.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Tubbs
Miss Congeniality
# 440
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sarasa:
... More reecently Diana Wynne Jones and Jan Mark, both of whom I did meet.
I came here to say Wynne Jones! Didn't know about Jan Mark though. Another loss.
Tubbs
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"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it up and remove all doubt" - Dennis Thatcher. My blog. Decide for yourself which I am
Posts: 12701 | From: Someplace strange | Registered: Jun 2001
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Meindert de Jong.
Wrote what is, IMO, one of the best children's books of all time - The Wheel on the School. It has illustrations by Maurice Sendak as well - absolutely magical.
I remember nothing else about that book (read at primary school), except that every time I visit the Netherlands I itch to see storks on a nest! I've seen them in the Baltic States, and I've seen an empty nest at the Hortus in Amsterdam, but I've yet to see them on a nest in Holland.
Maybe this year...
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Diana Norman, aka Ariana Franklin, author of the excellent Mistress of the Art of Death books, of which there weren't nearly enough.
When Ellis Peters died I was sad that there'd be no more Brother Cadfael.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
At least there are biographies of Gaskell, Austen and even E. Nesbit (who was a live wire) so that we can know more of them.
What is equally sad is writers who wrote great books, but seem to have quit. And they don't even have the excuse of being dead! I want more novels from Joy Chant. I was very worried indeed about Lois McMaster Bujold (who was plagued with health issues) but saw only the other day that she is going to have a new novel out in 2016.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
I doubt if anyone else remembers the name, but I wish Sanders Anne Laubenthal had written more novels.
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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Athrawes
Ship's parrot
# 9594
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Posted
Dorothy Sayers. I have loved everything she has written.
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Explaining why is going to need a moment, since along the way we must take in the Ancient Greeks, the study of birds, witchcraft, 19thC Vaudeville and the history of baseball. Michael Quinion.
Posts: 2966 | From: somewhere with a book shop | Registered: Jun 2005
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Madeleine L'Engle. Her death didn't get anywhere near the amount of attention it should have.
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I'll always love Madeline L'Engle's novels, but a lot of her more autobiographical work was spoiled for me by the revelations about her family life that her children revealed after her death. Not because I thought less of her for not having a perfect marriage or an idyllic home life, but because in re-reading the memoirs with that knowledge, it feels like she whitewashed and tried to gloss over things that must have been actually quite painful, without even hinting at that pain. While I don't believe everyone needs to write a warts-and-all tell-all expose of their personal life (thank goodness!), if you are writing memoirs specifically about your marriage and your family and you leave out hugely important things that don't fit the appealing picture you're painting, I have difficulty believing that you're really writing honestly and from the heart.
So I guess you could say that for me L'Engle's death received too much attention, in the sense that the things her children felt free to say publicly after her death changed how I felt about her non-fiction.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Astrid Lindgren (who gave the world Pippi Longstocking and Edith Unnerstad (The Saucepan Journey, etc.
I don't know what it is about Scandinavia but it seems to produce some fantastic writers of books for children. Lindgren is the third most translated children's author after Andersen and the brothers Grimm and Unnerstad gave the world the Pip-Larsson family.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Athrawes:
Dorothy Sayers. I have loved everything she has written.
Have you read her collected letters? The first two volumes are excellent. The last two aren't so good.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
Re "Edwin Drood":
IIRC, someone "completed" it in the '70s or '80s. I *think* this may have been the guy who said he channeled Dickens. Haven't read it.
Drood was done as a Broadway play some years back (can't remember when), with IIRC audience voting on which of the possible solutions to be played. I never got to see it.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
When Ellis Peters died I was sad that there'd be no more Brother Cadfael.
I was also saddened by her death, but 'Brother Cadfael's Penance' (the last of the series) is such a stunning conclusion that one almost feels she knew it would be the last. I have read it many times (I'm that kind of reader), and there passages toward the end that still bring tears.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Dang, now I have to read it.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Dorothy Dunnett and Diana Wynne Jones.
I also really wish Dickens had survived long enough to finish "Edwin Drood". It looks pretty clear that Jasper murdered Edwin, but I want to know who Dick Datchery is and what's the secret of his hat.
The BBC adaptation of 'Edwin Drood' a couple of years ago is well worth seeing. It probably doesn't end quite how Dickens would have intended, but perhaps he wasn't the sort of writer who always knew this sort of thing well in advance anyway.
[ 25. March 2015, 17:00: Message edited by: SvitlanaV2 ]
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
Dick Francis. I know maybe he went on too long, the last few weren't so good especially after his wife died as her collaboration was very sigificant, but at his peak he was terrific.
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Niminypiminy
Shipmate
# 15489
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Astrid Lindgren (who gave the world Pippi Longstocking and Edith Unnerstad (The Saucepan Journey, etc.
I don't know what it is about Scandinavia but it seems to produce some fantastic writers of books for children. Lindgren is the third most translated children's author after Andersen and the brothers Grimm and Unnerstad gave the world the Pip-Larsson family.
Oh, I love the Pip-Larsson family! As a child I longed to be part of it, to have Dessi as the ideal oldest sister, and Aunt Bella with her mangling shop down the road, and a holiday home on the lake at Blueviken. We had Little O and The Urchin, and I've never read the others -- but maybe it is time to hunt them out.
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Lives of the Saints: songs by The Unequal Struggle
http://www.theunequalstruggle.com/
Posts: 776 | From: Edge of the Fens | Registered: Feb 2010
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Try to find Toppen and I at the Croft - I loved it and so did my children (boys) and my goddaughters.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
I'm still very sad about Douglas Adams. I wonder how many volumes would now be in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy, had he lived? And what other bizarre ideas he might have concocted? I could have gone for a whole series of Dirk Gently books instead of just two.
I think Hitchhikers' had run its course; TBH probably before the last book. Dirk Gently had wings though.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I actually think you're right about Hitchhikers, but I do think that if he'd lived he probably would have written more, and I probably would have read them anyway!
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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