passages

  Charles Reich, the author responsible for the first “Greening of America” is dead at age 91. From AP: Reich was a popular Yale University professor whose students included both Bill and Hillary Clinton and a respected legal scholar when a 39,000-word excerpt from “The Greening of America” ran in The New Yorker in September 1970, generating a massive volume of letters. The book was published a few weeks later and sold more than 2 […]

Fashion icon and designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died Tuesday at the age of 85, had a lot of books. “I hate leisure, except reading,” he once told Women’s Wear Daily. And he walked the walk. He had an extensive library that included over 300,000 volumes in four different languages. His personal library is houses in a special room, but is so full, the books had to be stacked horizontally to fit more on the ample […]

Author, novelist, journalist and intellectual Amos Oz died in Tel Aviv on Friday at the age of 79. His daughter, Fania Oz-Salzberger, announced that he had died “in his sleep, peacefully,” after a short battle with cancer. Born Amos Klausner, Oz changed his name to the Hebrew word for “courage” when he embraced Zionism at the age of 14. He was the author of 40 books published in 45 languages and was widely celebrated in his […]

“Heartbroken. Thank you for making me believe in heroes,” tweeted rocker Corey Taylor on Monday, following news of the death of Stan Lee. It was a sentiment echoed in all forms of media after the announcement that the legendary comic book writer, editor, producer, and publisher had died just over a month shy of his 96th birthday. If social media was bereft, mainstream media was poetic, with the New York Times leading the way with a […]

The controversial Nobel Prize winning author author V.S. Naipaul died on Saturday at home in London at age 85. From BBC News: Sir Vidia, who was born in rural Trinidad in 1932, wrote more than 30 books including A Bend in the River and his masterpiece, A House for Mr Biswas. His wife Lady Naipaul called him a “giant in all that he achieved”. She said he died at his home in London “surrounded by […]

The world of science fiction lost a hero on Wednesday when Harlan Ellison passed away. His wife, Susan Toth, said the 84-year-old writer died in his sleep at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. On Twitter, author Stephen King said, “Harlan Ellison: There was no one quite like him in American letters, and never will be. Angry, funny, eloquent, hugely talented. If there’s an afterlife, Harlan is already kicking ass and taking down names.” From […]