Adrienne Rich Dies at 82

The noted and beloved writer Adrienne Rich died this week at age 82.

An elegy written by fellow writer Marge Piercy, posted at Ms. Magazine, is here.

A sampling of the dozens of obituaries: 

• New York Times
• Los Angeles Times
• The Guardian
• The Huffington Post

Rich is as well-known and respected for her groundbreaking literary and political essays as for her poetry. Her collections are available in library collections everywhere, including branches of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library system.

In Memoriam: Author Deaths in 2011

Vaclav Havel (December 18)

Christopher Hitchens (December 15)

Brian Jacques (February 5)

Arthur Laurents (May 5)

Anne McCaffrey (November 21)

Andy Rooney (November 4)

Joanna Russ (April 29)

Ernesto Sabato (April 30)

William Sleator (August 3)

Piri Thomas (October 17)

Tom Wicker (November 25)

The works of these authors and journalists are included in the collections of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library.

Project Gutenberg Founder Michael Hart Dies at 63

Michael Stearn Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg and inventor of the electronic book, died this week at age 63.

The importance of Project Gutenberg to the history – and to the future – of books would be difficult to overemphasize.

Librarians, archivists, and computer-owning bibliophiles have Hart to thank for his visionary project to enlist the aid of thousands of volunteers around to globe to eventually digitize (and proofread) the texts of every copyright-free book ever published – and make these e-books available to anyone free of charge. (Hart launched his project before Google and Amazon.com decided they’d try something similar as a way of making money off the idea.)

Hart’s obituary is here. Wikipedia’s entry about Project Gutenberg is here.

Found via Shelf Awareness

Writer Theodore Roszak Dies at 77

The scholar who coined the term counterculture and the author of (among other books) the 1969 bestseller The Making of a Counterculture died July 5th. The Washington Post’s obituary is here; the Huffington Post’s is here; the San Francisco Chronicle’s is here; the UK-based Telegraph’s is here; the Boston Globe’s is here; the Los Angeles Times’ is here; the New York Times’ is here.

Found via The Book Bench

Bestselling Author Brian Jacques Dies at 71

British author of the 21 “Redwall” books for children, Brain Jacques, died earlier this month.

Read Jacques’ obituary in the Guardian.

Found via the New Yorker’s Book Bench

Novelist Wilfrid Sheed Dies at 80

Sheed wrote eight novels, three popular memoirs, and several collections of essays. 

He died January 19th in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Obituaries were posted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.

Found at A Commonplace Blog

Beloved Southern Writer Reynolds Price Dies at 77

Price died January 20th following a heart attack.

Obituaties include those at the New York Times and the  Huffington Post, and National Public Radio.

Atlanta’s libraries own copies of Price’s novels and collections of his short stories, essays,  poetry, memors, and plays, as well as several biographies and collections of critical essays about Price’s work.

Many patrons and employees of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System’s staff remember with fondness Price’s appearance and reading at the Central Library several years ago.

Postscript, July 2011: For a moving remembrance of Reynolds posted to the website of American Scholar, click here.

American Letters Loses Three Leading Lights

        

Last week, three well-known U.S. writers died: novelist J.D. Salinger (at 91);  historian and social activist Howard Zinn (at 87), and writer, editor, and lawyer Louis Auchincloss (at 92).

Clicking on the links above to these authors’ names will take you to entries about them in Wikipedia. The entires describe their contribution to American letters, provide lists of their works, and include links to further online information about them, including published obituaries.

You can borrow books written by these authors from your local public library.

Mystery Writer Robert Parker Dead at 77

The creator of Spenser, the Boston-based hero of a series of forty popular detective novels, died this week of a heart attack at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Obituaries have been published by (among others) the Boston Globe, the  New York Times,  the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post,  USA Today, and the UK’s Guardian.

Public libraries have extensive runs of Parker’s 60 novels.

Author Deaths in 2009

Among the famous and semi-famous writers who died in 2009 were:

Robert Anderson
J.G. Ballard
Courtland Bryan
Richard Carlson
Louise Cooper
Dominick Dunne
David Eddings
Philip Jose Farmer
Horton Foote
John Hope Franklin
Marilyn French
E. Lynn Harris
Paul Hemphill
Robert Holdstock
Claude Levi-Strauss
Norma Fox Mazer
Frank McCourt
Harold Norse
Budd Schulberg
William G. Tapply
John Updike

Legendary U.S. publisher Alfred Knopf also died this past year.

You can Google (or Bing) these names to find their obituaries, and you can find these writers’ works at most libraries.

List compiled from varied online sources