I haven't exactly been rolling in responses for my Saturday Word Plays or Great Wednesday Compares lately, so pushing this week's usual 10 questions to 15 might seem like wishful thinking at best. However, it would seem a bit disrespectful to leave anyone out intentionally, and since I'm making a game out of it as it is, I need to balance things out. I'll admit I don't know many of these. It's like those montages they show at the Oscars of actors, directors, etc that have died throughout the the preceding year: I usually only recognize 3 or 4. Anyway, these are writers that have left us this year (if you know more, please let me know in the comments). Unscramble the name above his/her obituary.
As always, feel free to do them all at home, but only answer one in the comment section, that way 15 people will have a chance to play.
1. Chiemal Htiocrnc
"[...]was a brand-name author, known for his stories of disaster and systematic breakdown, such as the rampant microbe of The Andromeda Strain or dinosaurs running amok in Jurassic Park, one of his many books that became major Hollywood movies." - Chicago Sun Times
2. Dusts Kertle
"Beginning with Division Street: America (1966), about urban unrest in the 1960s, [...] produced a series of books that pulled together the vivid and often moving recollections of 20th-century Americans. For The Good War: An Oral History of World War II, [...] won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985." - The Daily Telegraph
3. Vidda Rofset Cealalw
"best known for his mammoth 1996 novel, Infinite Jest (Little, Brown), a 1,079-page monster that perceives American society as self-obsessed, pleasure-obsessed and entertainment-obsessed." - The New York Times
4. Trainrongb J Blayye
"His idiosyncratic, complex, sometimes gloomy novels began with Star Virus (1964, US publication 1970) and included over a dozen novels published in the US by Ace and later DAW, among them Collision Course (aka Collision with Chronos, 1972), The Fall of Chronopolis (1974), The Soul of the Robot (1974), The Garments of Caean (1976), and The Zen Gun (1982)." - Locus Online
5. Ratruh C Lckrae
"[His] underlying seriousness led him to view his creative participation in commercial, if poetic, other-worldly enterprises, such as the film of his book 2001: a Space Odyssey, as a kind of scenario writing, not to be taken as an example of his central work. In this, however, many would disagree, for 2001 ('a glorified screenplay' according to [him]) was in many ways so accurate and convincing that Alexei Leonov, the first spacewalking human, said that he felt that it had carried him into space again." - guardian.co.uk
6. Evad Mfarnee
"[...]an advertising agency executive who co-wrote 100 Things to Do Before You Die, an adventure-seeking and often unconventional travel guide that personified the way he lived his life, has died. He was 47." - LA Times
7. Illiwam Hatwonr
"[...]a successful impressionist painter who at 53 published his first novel, Birdy, which won a National Book Award, became a critically acclaimed movie and led to a dozen more books, died Wednesday in Encinitas, Calif. He was 82." - NY Times
8. Goreyrg Oldcmnod
"[...]an Edgar Award-winning crime writer whose acidly funny novels starring the subversive sleuth I. M. Fletcher, breezily known as Fletch, have sold millions of copies and inspired two Hollywood films, died on Sunday at his home in Pulaski, Tenn. He was 71." - The New York Times
9. Lamriny Fongersu
"[...] the author of the 1980 bestseller The Aquarian Conspiracy and a galvanizing influence on participants in scores of alternative groups that coalesced as the New Age movement, died Oct. 19 at her home in Banning. She was 70." - LA Times
10. Ogrege Oladdonmc Sarfre
"[...]author of the popular Flashman series of adventure stories, has died after a long battle against cancer." - The Independent
11. Yont Milelrhan
"[...] former newspaperman whose evocative mystery novels set among the Navajos of the Southwest took the American detective story in new directions and made him a best-selling author, died Sunday in Albuquerque, where he lived. He was 83." - The New York Times
12. Guoh Slauc
"Belgian writer, poet and artist [...] has died aged 78, ending his life by euthanasia, his wife has said." - BBC News
13. Illiwam Rufoodwf
"A native of Lancashire, England, [he] came to UF in 1966 and taught history here for 30 years. He retired in 1996 at the age of 80.
His teaching became the basis of his Concise History of the Modern World, now in its fifth edition." - The Gainesville Sun
14. Danry Schaup
"[...] a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose 'last lecture' about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, has died. He was 47." - ABC News
15. Egorge Liarcn
"He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a few TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure' in 1989 — a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (sometimes hitting all points in one stroke)."
I won't make this an official challenge or anything, but it might be a nice gesture to pick one of these authors to read in the new year, as a sort of memorial.
7 comments:
#9 Marilyn Ferguson, not only because she's the only woman on the list (surely more women writers died in 2008?? or do we live forever? haha) but also because I remember---shudder the thought!---when New Age was all the rage. Strange to think now, in these days of global warming and financial meltdown, how people ate up that stuff.
CSimpson
1. Michael Crichton. They did a nice little tribute on ER Thursday night for him.
#11 is Tony Hillerman. I already have "The Blessing Way" on my tbr list.
#10 is George Macdonald Fraser. Perhaps not the most politically correct writer but he always made me laugh. I've probably missed a few of his books. I'll have to see if I can read one in 2009.
CSimpson: I'm sure there must have been other women authors to have died in 20087, though I couldn't find any. Likewise, I didn't hear of any Canadian authors who'd died this year.
Raidergirl: Did dinosaurs terrorize the emergency ward?
Wanda: Unfortunately Hillerman was one of those I wasn't aware of until after the fact.
Gypsysmom: Who was Flashman?
#14 is Randy Pausch. The book and the video of the lecture are both very moving. I enjoyed them both.
#15 is George Carlin. I loved him, had his albums, and, I don't know what it says about me but I can still rhyme off the seven words you can't say on television.
Post a Comment