Θάνατοι συγγραφέων στο χώρο του Φανταστικού.

[I robot]

Άλλος ένας γίγαντας της ΕΦ και της λογοτεχνίας γενικότερα εξέπνευσε.

 

!!!

...και χθες βράδυ πήρα την Εκθεση Ωμοτήτων στο κρεβάτι και το ξεκίνησα για τρίτη φορά (δεν ξέρω αν θα τα καταφέρω αλλα οκ). Τι να πεις...

[Mort13]

Writer Ken Rand, 62, died April 21, 2009 at home in West Jordan UT of complications from a rare abdominal cancer.

His novels include Phoenix (2004), The Golems of Laramie County (2005), Dadgum Martians Invade the Lucky Nickel Saloon! (2006), Pax Dakota (2008), Fairy BrewHaHa at the Lucky Nickel Saloon (2008), and A Cold Day in Hell (2009). His short work was collected in many volumes, most recently Where Angels Fear: The Collected Short Fiction, Volume One (2008), and The Gods Perspire: The Collected Short Fiction, Volume Two (2008). He also wrote many books of non-fiction, both writing guides and memoirs.

Rand was born July 19, 1946 in Spokane WA and grew up in Port Chicago CA. He was a hippie in San Francisco in the 1960s, and worked as a photographer, talk show host, producer, editor, actor, and announcer for sporting events and daredevil shows, and spent over two decades as a broadcast and print reporter.

He is survived by his wife Lynne (married 1969, divorced 1974; remarried 1993), their three children, and six grandchildren.

[Mort13]

Thomas Franklin Deitz, 57, died on April 27, 2009 of heart failure at his home in Oakwood, Georgia. Born January 17, 1952, Deitz established himself as a popular fantasist in 1986 with Windmaster's Bane, going on to write 16 well-received fantasy novels, including the Soulsmith trilogy and a tetralogy beginning with Bloodwinter (2002).

 

Deitz suffered a major heart attack on January 18 of this year, and was hospitalized for months. He was initially a candidate to receive a ventricular assist device (VAD), but unfortunately his heart was too fragile for the operation. He spent his last week at home in hospice care, settling his affairs. At the time of his death, he was working on a young-adult fantasy novel.

[Mort13]

Author David Eddings, 77, died June 2, 2009 at home in Carson City, Nevada. Eddings began publishing with High Hunt (1973), and is best known for his many epic fantasy series, including The Belgariad, The Mallorean, and the Dreamers. Eddings was predeceased by his wife and co-author Leigh Eddings (died 2007), who helped write all his books, and was credited as co-author on many from the mid-'90s on.

[Mort13]

Paul O. Williams (born 1935) died June 2, 2009 from an aortic dissection. His most notable work was the Pelbar Cycle, a series of seven novels set in post-apocalyptic Illinois. He won the Campbell Award in 1983, and published two other science fiction novels outside of the Pelbar novels; the most recent was The Man from Far Cloud in 2004. He was also a poet, served as president of the Haiku Society of America, and was professor emeritus of English at Principia College in Elsah IL.

[Mort13]

SF writer Phyllis Gotlieb, 83, died July 14, 2009.

 

Born Phyllis Fay Bloom on May 25, 1926 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Gotlieb was sometimes called the founder of Canadian science fiction, and in the '60s and '70s she was the only prominent English-language Canadian SF writer. She was a founding member of SF Canada, and her many honors include an Aurora Award for lifetime achievement (1982).

 

Her first SF story was "A Grain of Manhood" in Fantastic in 1959, and she published short fiction widely into this century. Some of her stories are gathered in Son of the Morning and Other Stories (1983) and Blue Apes (1995). She edited Tesseracts2 (1987), an anthology of Canadian SF, with Douglas Barbour.

 

Gotlieb's first novel Sunburst appeared in 1964; one of Canada's most important SF prizes is called the Sunburst Award in her honor. Other works include her Sven Dhalgren books: O Master Caliban! (1976) and Heart of Red Iron (1989); her Starcats series: Nebula-nominated novella "Son of the Morning" (1972) and novels including Aurora Award winner A Judgment of Dragons (1980), Emperor, Swords, Pentacles (1982), and Tiptree and Aurora finalist The Kingdom of the Cats; the Flesh and Gold series: Flesh and Gold (1998), Violent Stars (1999); Mindworlds (2002); and standalone feminist fantasy Birthstones (2007).

[Mort13]

Writer Mary Hunter Schaub, 66, died of cancer September 25, 2009 in hospice. Schaub wrote The Magestone (1996) with Andre Norton, and solo novel Exile (1992), both set in Norton’s Witch World universe. She also published several stories beginning in the ’70s, with work in Analog and various anthologies, many set in Norton’s fictional worlds.

[Mort13]

British fantasy author Louise Cooper, 57, died October 21, 2009 of a brain aneurysm at home in Cornwall. Cooper was a prolific author who wrote over 80 books for adults and children. She was best known for her Time Master trilogy, and for her Indigo Saga series. Louise Antell was born May 29, 1952 in Hertfordshire. She married first husband Gary Cooper in 1970. After working as a secretary and as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, she became a full-time writer in 1984. She married artist Cas Sandall in 1999; he survives her.

[Gully Foyle]

Άλλος ένας μας άφησε...

Breaking News: Robert Holdstock, born 1948, died this morning, Sunday 29 November, after ten days of hospitalization with an E. coli infection.

[Mort13]

Robert Holdstock, 61, died in a London hospital at 4 a.m. on November 29, 2009 after almost two weeks in intensive care battling a severe E. coli infection. He was hospitalized after collapsing on November 18 and put on life-support, with multiple-organ breakdown, including his liver, kidneys, and heart. The E. coli infection was discovered the next day.

 

He is best known as the author of the Mythago Cycle and the Merlin Codex series. His latest novel Avilion, the direct sequel to Mythago Wood, was published in July 2009. Holdstock's works have won him four BSFA Awards and two World Fantasy Awards, as well as many nominations.

 

Born in Hythe, Kent, Holdstock held jobs as a banana boatman, construction worker, and slate miner. He earned a Bachelor of Science from University College of North Wales, Bangor, with honors in applied Zoology, and a Master of Science in Medical Zoology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. From 1971 to 1974, he conducted research at the Medical Research Council in London, while writing part-time. He became a full-time writer in 1976.

 

Holdstock is survived by partner Sarah Biggs.

[Mort13]

Harry C. Crosby, Jr., who wrote SF as Christopher Anvil, died at home in Cayuta NY on November 30th, 2009. He was born Mar. 11, 1925 in Norwich, CT.

 

He published over 100 short stories and several novels, and was most prolific in the '50s and '60s, with his work appearing extensively in Astounding/Analog. In recent years Baen Books has published seven of a planned eight volumes collecting all his SF, edited by Eric Flint.

 

He is survived by his wife, two children, and five grandchildren.

[Mort13]

Writer and editor Janet Fox, 68, died September 21, 2009 at home in Osage City KS after a long struggle with cancer. Fox began publishing short stories and poetry in the 1970s with “The Materialist” for The Magazine of Horror and published scores of stories and poems in magazines including Twilight Zone, Weird Tales, Cemetery Dance, and others, as well as numerous anthologies. Under house name Alex McDonough she wrote five books in the Scorpio novel series for Ace, from 1990-93. She edited monthly market 'zine Scavenger's Newsletter from 1984-2003, and was secretary/treasurer of the Small Press Writers and Artists Organization.

[Mort13]

Experimental Serbian novelist Milorad Pavic, 80, died November 30, 2009 in Belgrade of complications from a heart attack. Pavic's novels, which all had fantasy elements, were translated into over 30 languages. Pavic also published short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Born October 15, 1929 in Belgrade, Pavic obtained a doctorate at the University of Zagreb and taught philosophy at the University of Novi Sad and later the University of Belgrade. He is survived by his wife Jasmina Mihajlovic, a daughter, and a son.

[Mort13]

Writer Kage Baker, 57, died January 31, 2010 of cancer at home in Pismo Beach, CA. Baker was best known for her Company series of time travel novels and stories. Company novel The Empress of Mars (2008) was an expansion of the eponymous 2003 novella, which won a Sturgeon Award and was a Hugo and Nebula finalist. Baker also wrote fantasy, notably Mythopoeic finalist The Anvil of the World (2003) and World Fantasy Award-nominated sequel The House of the Stag (2008). In 1999, she was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She also published around 70 stories, including Hugo finalist "Son Observe the Time" (1999) and World fantasy finalist "Caverns of Mystery" (2008).

 

Baker was born June 10, 1952 in Hollywood CA, and spent most of her life there and in Pismo Beach. From the 1970s onward, she was an actor, artist, and director with As You Like It Productions (formerly the Living History Center, which started the first Renaissance Faire). She taught Elizabethan English to stage actors for 20 years and supplemented her income writing ad copy, but from the late '90s onward devoted most of her time to writing fiction. In 2009, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, and underwent extensive treatment. However, the cancer metastasized to her brain. By mid-January 2010 doctors ceased treatment, and she died peacefully in the company of her family.

[Mort13]

Philip Klass, who wrote SF as William Tenn, 89, died February 7, 2010 of congestive heart failure.

 

Klass is best known for his satirical, humorous SF work. His first SF story was "Alexander the Bait" in Astounding (1946). Klass also wrote two novels, Of Men and Monsters (1968) and short novel A Lamp for Medusa (1968), and numerous non-fiction articles and essays, some of which were gathered in Hugo finalist Dancing Naked: The Unexpurgated William Tenn (2004). Klass was named SFWA Author Emeritus in 1999, and was Guest of Honor at the 2004 Worldcon.

 

Philip Klass was born May 9, 1920 in London. His family moved to New York when he was still a baby, and he grew up in Brooklyn. He served in the US Army during WWII as a combat engineer, and began writing in 1945 following his discharge. He taught English and comparative literature at Penn State for almost 25 years, retiring as professor emeritus. He is survived by wife Fruma and a daughter, Adina.

[Mort13]

Jim Harmon, 76, died February 16, 2010 in New York of a heart attack. Harmon began publishing professional SF stories with "The Smuggler" in Spaceway (1954), and went on to produce at least 40 stories in the 1950s and '60s, mostly for Galaxy and If; some of those stories were later collected in Harmon's Galaxy (2004). He wrote one novel, The Contested Earth, in 1959, but it only saw publication in 2007 as part of The Contested Earth and Other SF Stories in 2007.

 

James Judson Harmon was born April 21, 1933 in Mount Carmel IL. In addition to SF, he also wrote detective and crime stories, but he was best known as an expert on classic radio shows and movies, earning the nickname "Mr. Nostalgia". The Great Radio Heroes (1967) remains a landmark work on the subject, and he wrote numerous other non-fiction work.

 

He contributed writing on comics to fanzine Xero, was editor of Monsters of the Movies from 1974-75, and edited two volumes of anthology series It's That Time Again in 2004 and 2006, featuring new stories about classic radio characters. Harmon received an Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1977. He is survived by his wife Barbara.

[Mort13]

Mervyn Jones, 87, died February 23, 2010 in Brighton, Sussex. Jones wrote 29 novels, only one of which was SF: On the Last Day (1958), about the Russian/Chinese invasion of Britain during WWIII.

Born in London on February 27, 1922, Jones turned down a spot at Oxford to go to New York University. He returned home to serve in WWII, serving in the 59th Anti-Tank Regiment and briefly becoming a German prisoner of war. After the war he contributed to Communist publications until becoming disillusioned with the party, and worked as journalist and novelist.

[Mort13]

David Storr Unwin, 91, who wrote children's novels as David Severn, died February 11, 2010 in London. Unwin, the son of publisher Sir Stanley Unwin, was born in London on March 12, 1918. He published over 30 children's books in the UK, some with SF and fantasy elements, including Dream Gold (1949), Drumbeats! (1953), and The Future Took Us (1957). His final children's book, The Wishing Bone, appeared in 1977. He also wrote two books for adults under his own name. His final book was autobiography Fifty Years With Father (1982).

[Mort13]

Author Patricia Wrightson, 88, died March 15, 2010, in a hospital in New South Wales, Australia.

 

Born June 21, 1921 in Lismore, New South Wales, Wrightson wrote 27 children's and YA books, many with fantasy elements, including The Nargun and the Stars (1973), The Ice Is Coming (1977), The Dark Bright Water (1978), Journey Beyond the Wind (1981), A Little Fear (1983), Moon-dark (1987), and Balyet (1989). Many of her novels drew on Australian aboriginal mythology.

Wrightson won the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year award four times, and was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986 in recognition for her lifetime achievement in writing for young people. She was also awarded the New South Wales Premier's Special Award in 1988 for distinguished contributions to Australian literature. The Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature was named in her honor.

[Mort13]

Children's author William Mayne, 82, died March 23, 2010 in Thornton Rust, North Yorkshire.

 

Born March 16, 1928 in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he wrote over a hundred books, some of which included SF and fantasy elements, notably the Earthfasts sequence – Earthfasts (1966), Cradlefasts (1999), and Candlefasts (2002) – and A Game of the Dark (1971), The Jersey Shore (1971), The Member for the Marsh (1956), and for younger readers Skiffy (1972) and sequel Skiffy and the Twin Planets (1982). He won a Carnegie medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and a Guardian book award in 1983 for Low Tide.

 

Mayne's reputation was ruined in 2004 after he pled guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault on children from 1960-73. He was jailed for over two years, forbidden to work with children, and added to the sex offenders' registry for life.

[Mort13]

Writer, editor, and publisher George H. Scithers, 80, died April 19, 2010 after suffering a massive heart attack on April 17.

 

Scithers first became active in the SF field in 1959 as editor of two-time Hugo winning fanzine Amra. He was the founding editor of Asimov's when it launched in 1977, continuing there until 1982, and from 1982-86 edited Amazing Stories. In 1987 he revived Weird Tales with Darrell Schweitzer and John Betancourt, and in 2007 stopped editing the magazine actively, becoming editor emeritus. He founded specialty publisher Owlswick Press in 1973 and also edited numerous anthologies, most recently Cat Tales: Fantastic Feline Fiction (2008). He also wrote fiction, notably first genre story "Faithful Messenger" in If (1969) and spoof cookbook To Serve Man (inspired by Damon Knight's eponymous story) under the name Karl Würf in 1976.

 

He was nominated for seven Hugos as a professional editor, winning in 1978 and 1980; was fan guest of honor at the 2001 Worldcon; won a special professional World Fantasy award in 1992 (with frequent collaborator Darrell Schweitzer); and received a World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2002.

[Mort13]

Sharon Webb, 74, died April 30, 2010 in Blairsville GA of a heart attack. Born February 29, 1936 in Tampa FL, Webb worked as a nurse in addition to writing. Her first SF publications were poem “Atomic Reaction” (1963) and story “The Girl with the 100 Proof Eyes” (1964) both in F&SF and both under pseudonym Rob Webb. In the ’80s she published a number of stories under her own name in Asimov’s and other publications, many about a future nurse, assembled in fix-up novel The Adventures of Terra Tarkington, R.N. (1985). Other novels include the Earth Song trilogy: Earthchild (1982), Earthsong (1983), and Ramsong (1984). She was predeceased by husband Brian Webb, and is survived by three daughters.

[DinMacXanthi]

Tauntaun μπορείς να βάλεις για άβαταρ τον Grim Reaper ή κάτι παρόμοιο;

 

Κάθε φορά που βλέπω αυτό το τόπικ να πετιέται, σφίγγεται η καρδιά μου μην δω καναν Pratchett (φτου-φτου-φτου) εδώ. Ζοφερό καθήκον έχεις αναλάβει, mate.

[heiron]

Εγώ προσπαθω να φακελώνω τους μεγάλους συγγραφείς που ζουνε ακόμη σε φεησμπουκ ή να παρακολουθω φορουμ και μπλογκ τους για την υγεια τους.Αν χασω μερικες μερες τα ιχνη τους ερχομαι και τσεκαρω εδω,τη "Λιστα Του Τοντονερ".

Συγκεκριμενα εναν υπερηλικα που προσπαθω να του παρω συνεντευξη(...) μπαινω και κοιταζω το μπλογκ του 2-3 φορες τη μερα.

[mman]

Tauntaun μπορείς να βάλεις για άβαταρ τον Grim Reaper ή κάτι παρόμοιο;

 

Αααααχαχαχχαχαχα!