Ship of Fools: Writers I've Loved and Lost

Thread: Writers I've Loved and Lost Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

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?

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

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.

Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on :

Robertson Davies. So sad that the Toronto Trilogy will never be completed. [Frown]

Posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger (# 8891) on :

Too soon to mention Terry Pratchett?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

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.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

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.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I've read at least two "finished" endings. Neither was very convincing.

Posted by Hilda of Whitby (# 7341) on :

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.

Posted by MarsmanTJ (# 8689) on :

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.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

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

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

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

Posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger (# 8891) on :

I love the books of Robert B Parker and Ed McBain - both sadly departed.

Posted by Sarasa (# 12271) on :

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.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

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.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

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.

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

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. [Frown]

Tubbs

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

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

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

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.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

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.

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

I doubt if anyone else remembers the name, but I wish Sanders Anne Laubenthal had written more novels.

Posted by Athrawes (# 9594) on :

Dorothy Sayers. I have loved everything she has written.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Madeleine L'Engle. Her death didn't get anywhere near the amount of attention it should have.

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

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.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

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.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

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

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

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.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

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.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Dang, now I have to read it.

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

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 ]

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

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.

Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on :

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.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Try to find Toppen and I at the Croft - I loved it and so did my children (boys) and my goddaughters.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

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.

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

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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