Poet and songwriter (best known for co-writing "Mercedes Benz" for Janis Joplin), who was there at the star of the Beat movement, Michael McClure, 87 https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/bo...51zLCjBG-SAeZmVZJwG0d-khnP87EgbuX2DwdOHSBWMZ0 Michael McClure, the young poet recruited to put together the famed Six Gallery readings in 1955 that launched the San Francisco Renaissance and the legend of the Beats, died Monday, May 4, at his home in the Oakland hills. He was 87. ... Well into his 80s, McClure remained a poet in demand, both for his current work and for his association with the Beats. He and Gary Snyder were the only poets still alive who had read at Six Gallery on Oct. 7, 1955. McClure was living at Scott and Haight streets and coming over the hill to Six Gallery, which had sculptures hanging from the rafters and a plank stage on the floor, on Fillmore at Greenwich streets. He had been asked to organize the reading, but his time was tight, with a wife who was expecting. He foisted the organizational duty on Ginsberg, who recruited Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Philip Lamantia and Kenneth Rexroth. Each of the poets read several works. Lawrence Ferlinghetti was in the room, but did not read. Neither did Jack Kerouac, busy as he was with his drinking. In his nonfiction account of that night, “Scratching the Surface of the Beats,” published in 1982, McClure sets the stage for the revolution that was to follow in the mid-1950s: “The world that we tremblingly stepped out into in that decade was a bitter, gray one. But San Francisco was a special place. Rexroth said it was to the arts what Barcelona was to Spanish Anarchism. Still, there was no way, even in San Francisco to escape the pressure of the war culture. we were locked in the pressure of the Cold War and the first Asian debacle — the Korean War. My self image in those years was of finding myself — young, high, a little crazed, needing a haircut, in an elevator with burly crew-cutted, square jawed eminences, staring at me like I was misplaced cannon fodder. … We saw that the art of poetry was essentially dead — killed by war, by academies, by neglect, by lack of love, and by disinterest. We knew we could bring it back to life.”
Joanna Cole -- The Magic Schoolbus She made science fun. And that takes some doing. https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=30872 Her first book, Cockroaches, was published in 1971. She chose the subject because she had observed that no children's books had been written about roaches and, as she told her publisher, "I had ample time to study the creature in my low-budget New York apartment!" We get one more this winter:
John le Carre'. Sigh. https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...yOttun90dUdxkLv6E4E4nUVhrDKHwPy6YXSDkaJCjJ1SI
Poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 101. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Poet And Small Press Publisher, Dies At 101 : NPR Lawrence Ferlinghetti has died in San Francisco. He was 101. Ferlinghetti is probably best known for three things: his Beat poetry, his San Francisco bookstore and small press, and his defense of the First Amendment in a famous court case. . . . . Literary critic Gerald Nicosia says Ferlinghetti's two greatest accomplishments were fighting censorship, and inaugurating a small press revolution. "Up until that point, getting published was a difficult thing," Nicosia says. "If you were a radical, an innovative writer, you would be rebuffed by New York, by mainstream publishers. By creating this press out of nothing — City Lights Press — he said: Look, you don't need these big publishers in New York. You can do it, and you can get the books out, and not only that, you can make waves."
Larry McMurtry Dies At 84 : NPR Larry McMurtry, a prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Oscar-winning screenwriter, has died at age 84. He was beloved for riveting and yet unsentimental depictions of the American West in books like Lonesome Dove, as well as for tales of family drama including Terms of Endearment. In a statement, his representative Amanda Lundberg said McMurtry "passed away last night, on March 25 of heart failure at 84 years old surrounded by his loved ones who he lived with including long time writing partner Diana Ossana, his wife Norma Faye and their 3 dogs." In all, McMurtry wrote more than 30 novels as well as over a dozen non-fiction works that spanned memoir, history and essays. He also wrote over 20 screenplays and television scripts. McMurtry was also famous for his bookstore, Booked Up in Archer City, Texas. Even after selling off more than half of his holdings in 2012, he still had about 200,000 books between his private collection and the store. The guy wrote a bunch of highly readable novels, some decent movies, and a three late memoirs, one about his life and writing, another about his life in the book trade, and a third about working in and for Hollywood.
We're the wrong demographic to have paid much attention to the passing of Beverly Cleary, but as far as an author who really mattered to a lot of people at an important time in their lives, she's up there with the greats. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/311881785/beverly-cleary-creator-of-ramona-quimby-dies-at-104
David McCullough Two-time Pulitzer prize winner, two-time winner of the National Book Award, and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner. I was a history major, and in high school, my two primary history teachers were revolutionary scholars, and yet reading his 1776 was still eye-opening. In a way that I hadn't had my eyes opened in 20 years. His inaugural work on the Jonestown flood was so good, it made me re-think my desire to publish my nascent historical work. He won the Pulitzer for his bios on John Adams and Harry S Truman, yet his most engaging work to me was on the Brooklyn Bridge. Social history, political thought, biography. McCullough covered all the bases. https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/08/david-mccullough-dead-american-history/ According to this obit, McCullough was something of a "method" writer. Interesting.
His first book was on the Johnstown Flood, which was a man-made disaster, not a natural one. And he has a bridge named after him . . . . . . which puts him in the company of Roberto Clemente and Andy Warhol. Ironically, if you cross the McCullough bridge heading north, you'll see Paul Warhola' (Andy's brother's) junkyard.
Sharon Kay Penman died at 75 in 2021. She was famous for her historical fiction novels about medieval Britain, though she was an American. I might read some of her books.
Milan Kundera, 94, Czech-French author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I really need to read that.