January - Authors Lost

January 2010 has been a significant month in literature with the deaths of several prominent authors. Here are some quotes from characters in their work.

Iconic, reclusive novelist J. D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, 91 (January 28)

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though."

A People’s History of the United States historian, activist Howard Zinn, 87 (January 27)

"One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreign-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and the unskilled. These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country."

Novelist of manners, literary critic Louis Auchincloss, 92 (January 26)

"We'll get you dressed up in the finest dark suits and white stiff collars — no color except for a gorgeous Charvet tie ... "

Spenser mystery writer Robert B. Parker, 77 (January 18)

"I sat at the end of Hayden's street with the motor idling and the heater on until nine o'clock, when I ran low on gas and had to shut off the motor. By ten fifteen I was cold. The hamburgers were long gone, though the memory lingered on the back of my throat, and I was almost through the bourbon. During that time Hayden had not come to me and confessed. He had not had a visit from Joe Broz or Phil, or the Ghost of Christmas Future. The Ceremony of Moloch had not shown up and sung 'The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi' under his window. At eleven o'clock the lights in his living room went out and I went home--stiff, sore, tired, crabby, dyspeptic, cold, and about five-eighths drunk."

Love Story novelist Erich Segal, 72 (January 17)

"Love means never having to say you're sorry."

Filmmaker, story writer Eric Rohmer, 89 (January 11)

"... thoughts rather than actions."

Feminist Mary Daly, 81 (January 3)

"Women of the world unite! Stand up and fight! Say our own names! Go up in flames!"

This Week in Reading January 1 - 7

Literary authors born this week:

Initially: E. M. Forster, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. D. Salinger, E. L. Doctorow; also Isaac Asimov, Zora Neale Hurston, and Umberto Eco.

Poets and Playwrights: Carl Sandburg and Christopher Durang.

Nobel prizewinners: Rudolf Eucken (1908) and Gao Xingjian. (2000).

Thinkers, doers, and other well known authors: Cicero, Isaac Newton, Jacob Grimm, Heinrich Schliemann, Kahlil Gibran, Alan Watts, Charles Addams, B. Kliban, James Frazer, Gerald Durrell, Doris Kearns Goodwin

Answer to Last Week’s Question: J. D. Salinger wrote several books and stories with characters from the Glass family, Franny and Zooey, and Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters and Seymour among them.

This Week’s Question: When you’re too rushed on the way out of town to research anything, sometimes the opposite of literature happens. Why are all these authors with initials born in the same week? (There is no reasonable answer but we'd love to hear it if you have one. Don't forget B. Kliban, the cartoonist.) See you next week.

This Week in Reading Dec. 28, 2008 - Jan 3, 2009

This week is the last Monday-to-Friday week of the year. As you’ve noticed, we now have arranged the lists to which we link you from This Week in Reading as if there were only four weeks in a month. As we have now completed the year of authors whose books are in our library, next year the blog post referring to the list may show up only four times a month as well. We will work on correcting and adding any other authors who have been left off or who newly receive some level of prominence.

That said, the main event to read about this week, of course, is the coming of the New Year. It starts off colorfully enough with the always dependable Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl wherein we expect a dependable ninth straight Pac 10 victory. And, like many of us, London’s Samuel Pepys, who ought to be the patron saint of bloggers, began his famous diary on the first day of the year, in his case 1660, but unlike most of us he kept it going for ten years thus creating a wonderful historical resource for later readers. If you start a diary this year, why not make it into a daily record of your reactions not just to what you see and hear but also to what you read? Who knows what you may end up with, material for a book of your own, of for a blog, or comments to share with others?

It's another week big on initials for big authors, some of whom we’ll revisit next week (because they're in January), include 1907 Nobelist Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Forster, J R. R. Tolkien, Mortimer Adler, Isaac Asimov, and J. D. Salinger with novelists Robert Ruark, William Gaddis, and Nicholas Sparks.

This Week’s Question: J.D. Salinger, notoriously shy of publicity, will turn ninety this year and many will try to get him to say something publicly about his work which hasn’t been seen in years. Some are even suggesting he may have written novels he does not intend to publish in his lifetime. If that were true, last week’s posthumous Pulitzer may not be the only one. In addition to his ground breaking book, the adolescent anthem A Catcher in the Rye, he has written a series of novels and stories about a particularly quirky family which includes a prodigy which may or may not be reflective of his own peculiarities. What is the name of that family?

Answer to Last Week’s Question: The stylist who did not believe in style was controversial novelist, Big Sur denizen Henry Miller.

Happy New Year!