David Holbrook (1923-2011) died on August 11th at the age of 88. He was a British novelist, poet, and writer of literary criticism. He wrote prodigiously, and the Library owns several of his books:
Against the Cruel Frost: a Second Volume of Verse (PR6058 .O4 A72)
The Case Against Pornography (HQ21 .H59 1973), editor
Dylan Thomas and Poetic Dissociation (PR6039 .H52 Z67)
Llareggub Revisited: Dylan Thomas and the State of Modern Poetry (PR6039 .H52 Z68)
The Quest for Love (PR149 .L6 H6 1065)
His obituary from The Independent can be found here.
Samuel Menashe (1925-2011) died on August 22nd at the age of 85. He was a poet whose work went largely unnoticed during most of his lifetime. His career began in Britain where he gained wide acclaim, but he remained in the margins of the American poetry scene. In 2004 he was honored with the Poetry Foundation’s first Neglected Masters Award. His poem “Beachhead” is anthologized in Poets of World War II (PS595 .W64 P65 2003). Biographies and examples of his work can be found at the Poetry Foundation website, poets.org, and The Poetry Archive. An interview from 2006 can be found on NPR’s website. His New York Times obituary can be found here.
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer (1940-2011) died on August 26th at the age of 71. She was novelist and poet, winning, and being nominated for awards in several genres. Her 1974 book of poetry Granite Lady was nominated for the National Book Award for Poetry, her novel Anya won the 1974 Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and her short stories won O. Henry Prizes in 1978, 1997, and 2006. Her New York Times obituary can be found here.
N.F. Simpson (1919-2011) died on August 27th at the age of 92. He was an English playwright frequently associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. His play “We’re Due in Eastbourne in Ten Minutes” is anthologized in The Best Short Plays, 1972 (PN6111 .B471 1972). Obituaries from The Independent and The Telegraph can be found here and here respectively.
Oscar Handlin (1915-2011) died on September 20th at the age of 95. He was Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, winning the 1952 Prize for History for The Uprooted: the Epic Story of the Great Migrations that Made the American People (E184 .A1 H27 1951b). He was a prolific author, publishing titles on a variety of topics, including immigration and race relations. The Library owns a number of books that he authored or co-authored:
Abraham Lincoln and the Union (E457 .H238)
Al Smith and his America (E748 .S63 H16)
The American People in the Twentieth Century (E169.1 .H265)
American Principles and Issues: the Natural Purpose (E169.1 .H266)
The Americans: a New History of the People of the United States (E178 .H24)
Fire-bell in the Night: the Crisis in Civil Rights (E185.61 .H23)
The Historian and the City (HT155 .H2)
John Dewey’s Challenge to Education: Historical Perspectives on the Cultural Context (LD875 .D5 H28)
Liberty in America, 1600 to the Present (E183 .H32 1986)
A Pictorial History of Immigration (JV6450 .H34 1972)
The Wealth of the American People: a History of American Affluence (HC103 .H2)
His New York Times obituary can be found here.
Emanuel Litvinoff (1915-2011) died on September 24th at the age of 96. He was a British writer and poet best known for his poem “To T.S. Eliot” which was a response to the anti-Semitic elements in some of Eliot’s work. In 1951 Litvinoff recited the poem at a reading where Eliot was present. His obituary from The Telegraph details the incident. In addition to his poetry, he was the author of a number of novels centering on the struggles of European Jews, along with an acclaimed memoir, Journey Through a Small Planet, detailing his own upbringing in a Jewish community in London’s East End. His New York Times obituary can be found here.
Patrick Collinson (1929-2011) died on September 28th at the age of 82. He was an English historian who worked mostly in the area of Elizabethan Puritanism. His first major work, 1967′s The Elizabethan Puritan Movement, was extremely influential and laid a foundation for historians in years to come. The Library owns his book Archbishop Grindal, 1519-1583: the Struggle for a Reformed Church (BX5199 .G74 C64). His obituary from The Telegraph can be found here.
Stan Barstow, English novelist, author of A KIND OF LOVING, died 1st August 2011 aged 83 years.