R.I.P. 2019

American novelist and essayist and Nobel Prize for Literature Laureate Toni Morrison leads the list of writers who died in 2019.  Another prominent fiction writer of the African American experience was Ernest J. Gaines, author of  A Lesson Before Dying and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

Harold Bloom

Morrison broke ground for women writers and writers of color.  But other writers who died in 2019 may represent the end of a line.  At least one prominent obit speculated that Harold Bloom may not have many successors in passionately elucidating and advocating for writers he most admired.

Technological, economic and societal changes seem to be combining to threaten the institutions that supported the best journalism of the past.  Often what began under sponsorship of daily newspapers or weekly and monthly magazines, ended up in influential books that provided powerful reading and essential information.  So it is not certain there will be many more with the career of reporter and fictionist Ward Just, or reporter and analyst William Greider, whose last book was entitled The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy.  

He may be remembered by many as the genial second host of PBS Masterpiece Theatre, but Russell Baker's bread and butter was his New York Times column, which won a Pulitzer Prize.  Baker won another Pulitzer for his autobiographical book, Growing Up.

 The singular career of American poet W.S. Merwin--and the poems that resulted, especially in his later years--should fascinate future generations, though he is likely to remain unique.  Assuming those future generations (if any) have perception as well as perspective, his reputation will be much higher, and his absence from most 2019 "notable deaths" stories scandalous.

Gene Wolfe was a model of literary science fiction, who younger writers now emulate.  He is best known for his Book of the New Sun series.  Vonda N. McIntyre is perhaps best known for her Star Trek novels and novelizations but she wrote other science fiction as well, and was a particular friend of Ursula LeGuin.

Peter Nichols had a long career in theatre and journalism in the UK, though he is known in the US primarily for his play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.  Gahan Wilson's cartoon style was immediately recognizable to generations, through books he illustrated and numerous cartoon collections from 1965 to 2011.

But it isn't always the most famous who provide important books, in individual lives as well as society.  Among the books written by historian of the 20th century John Lukas was his 2005 Democracy and Populism: Fear and Hatred, a topic of our moment he foresaw.

Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller had many dazzling accomplishments in theatre, opera and television, but he was particularly proud of two of his books, Subsequent Performances and The Body in Question (drawn from his PBS series.)  Harris Wofford's political career included counselling John and Robert Kennedy, and serving as a US Senator, but he also wrote (and ghost-wrote) books, including his 1960s history Of Kennedys and Kings. 

Among the other fiction and non-fiction writers from around the world who died in 2019 (in no particular order) were novelist Larry Heinemann, Charles A. Reich (The Greening of America), literary theorist Jean Starobinski, writer and publisher James Atlas, historian Alan Brinkley, biographer Edmund Morris, Nick Tosches.

James Atlas

Anne River Siddons, Martin Mayer, Barbara Probst Solomon, Francine du Plessix Gray, Christopher Knopf, Rosamund Pilcher, Irene Coates, Gillian Freeman, Anthony Price, Tom Ungerer, Dorothea Benton Frank, Mary Warnock, Ulla Trenter, Elizabeth Spencer, Josie Rubio, Andrea Newman, Joseph C. Wilson, Peter Collier, Anthony Price, Noel Ignatiev, Dorothea Buck, Graham Gibson, John Bersia, D.J. Conway, publisher Sol Stein, Michel Serres, editor Elisabeth Sifton, Dan Jenkins, architect Cesar Pelli, publisher Susannah Hunneweil.

Among the poets from around the world who died in 2019 (in no particular order) were A. Alvarez, Leonard Wolf, Joe Rosenblatt, Kevin Killian, Louis Jenkins, John Irwin, Jules Deelder, Carol Muller, Piu Shahe, Amjad Nasser, Ludwig Zeller, Carol Satyamurti.  Apologies for omissions and misspellings.

May they rest in peace.  Their work lives on.