Deaths in December - 2021

Composer Alvin Lucier died December 1 at the age of 90. His books include Chambers and Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music.

Antony Sher (Sir Antony Sher), actor and writer of novels, memoirs and plays, died on 2 December 2012 aged 72. His various books include the novel Middlepost (1985) and a number of books about theatre including The Year of the Mad King and his many acting roles, include lead roles in King Lear, Richard III and Macbeth - he also acted in other classics productions eg Moliere, and in contemporary theatre as well. His career included stints in Gay Sweatshop and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Artist Lawrence Weiner died December 2 at the age of 79. His work includes Lawrence Weiner and Having Been Said.

Country musician Stonewall Jackson died December 4 at the age of 89. His memoir was called From the Bottom Up.

Former US Senator Bob Dole died December 5 at the age of 98. His books include One Soldier’s Story and Great Political Wit.

Washington Post editor Fred Hiatt died December 6 at the age of 66. His books include Baby Talk and The Secret Sun: A Novel of Japan.

Biochemist Richard A. Lerner died December 2 at the age of 83. He wrote Epidemic 9.

Culture critic for the Village Voice, Greg Tate has died at the age of 64. His books include Everything but the Burden and Flyboy in the Buttermilk.

Scholar of the African diaspora Julius S. Scott died December 6 at the age of 66. He wrote The Common Wind and Origins of the Black Atlantic.

Pianist and music scholar Barry Harris died of complications of Covid-19 on December 8 at the age of 91. He wrote The Barry Harris Harmonic Method for guitar.

Former member of The Monkees, Michael Nesmith died December 10 at the age of 78. His books include Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff and The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora. 😢

Stephen O'Rourke QC died December 8th 2021 aged 45.

Sports journalist Dave Campbell died December 10 at the age of 96. His books include The Best of Campbell’s Texas Football and Most Notorious Curses of all Time.

Novelist Anne Rice died December 11 at the age of 80. She is best known for her vampire book series starting with Interview with the Vampire and for her Mayfair Witches series. 😢

Banker Charles R. Morris died December 13 at the age of 82. His books include The Trillion Dollar Meltdown and The Cost of Good Intentions.

Playwright Robert Holman died December 3 at the age of 69. His work includes Jonah and Otto and Breakfast of Eels.

Music manager and charity organizer Ken Kragen died December 14 at the age of 85. He wrote Life is a Contact Sport.

Author Bell Hooks died December 15 at the age of 69. Her books include Feminism is for Everybody and All About Love.

Priest Donald Cozzens died December 9 at the age of 82. His books include The Changing Face of the Priesthood and Sacred Silence.

Architect Chris Wilkinson died December 14 at the age of 76. His books include Technically Speaking and SuperSheds.

Toy maker and Holocaust survivor Henry Orenstein died December 14 at the age of 98. His books include I Shall Live: Surviving the Holocaust, Gaon: Conflict and Cohesion and Abram: The Life of an Israeli Patriot.

Sex therapist Shirley Zussman died December 4 at the age of 107. With her husband Leon, She wrote Getting Together: A Guide for Couples.

Los Angeles writer Eve Babitz died December 17 at the age of 78. Her books include Eve’s Hollywood and Slow Days, Fast Company.

Yoko Kawashima Watkins, author of several fictionalized memoirs set in Korea and Japan, died on December 8 at her home in Brewster, Mass. Born in 1933, her family's survival as refugees was the subject of her books, So Far from the Bamboo Grove (1986), Tales from the Bamboo Grove (1992) and My Brother, My Sister, and I (1994). She won several awards, including the Parents' Choice Award in 1986 and Judy Lopez Memorial Medal in 1995.

Architect Alexander Garvin died December 17 at the age of 80. His books include The American city and Public Parks.

Poet David Wagoner has died at the age of 95. His books include Dry Sun, Dry Wind, A Place to Stand, and The Nesting Ground.

Journalist John Izbicki has died at the age of 91. He wrote Life Between the Lines and The Naked Heroine.

Joan Didion died aged 87 on December 23rd 2021.

Magazine editor Grace Mirabella died December 23 at the age of 92. Her books include Tiffany & Co and In and Out of Vogue.

Dr. James F. Fries has died at the age of 83. His books include Aging Well and Arthritis.

Chemist Robert H. Grubbs died December 19 at the age of 79. He wrote Handbook of Metathesis.

Photographer Robert Cumming died December 16 at the age of 78. His books include Three on Technology and Robert Cumming: Cone of Vision.

Scholar on Russia Robert Chenciner has died at the age of 76. His books include Madder Red and daghestan.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu died December 26 at the age of 90. His books include The book of Joy and No Future Without Forgiveness. Varielle heard him speak once and he almost made this agnostic get religion. There was a reason he was an Archbishop. RIP 😢

I'm a not at all religious granddaughter of an Anglican vicar but have a fascination with vicars, particularly ones engaged in and with political struggle, perhaps in memory of my own grandfather, who once sent his grandchildren out leafleting his block of flats for a film showing in another good cause. Sad to hear of the death of the great Desmond Tutu.

Not as far as I can tell the author of any books, but another cultural figure from the 80s - my teen years - onwards - Radio 1 DJ at a time when there were only a small handful of women, and a varied long broadcasting career, Janice Long has died aged 66. Her younger brother Keith Chegwin was also a broadcaster on radio and kids' TV - he died a few years ago.

Artist Wayne Thiebaud died December 25 at the age of 101. His work includes Vision and Revision and Wayne Thiebaud Charcoal.

Cricket champion Ray Illingworth died December 25 at the age of 89. His books include The Ashes: A Centenary, Yorkshire and Back, and One-Man Committee.

Guide book author Kev Reynolds died December 10 at the age of 78. His books include Walks and Climbs in the Pyrenees and Walking in the Alps.

E O Wilson biologist died 26 December 2021 aged 92. Obit https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/27/edward-o-wilson-naturalist-m...

Founder of Seal Team Six Richard Marcinko died December 25 at the age of 81. His books include Red Cell, Green Team and Rogue Warrior.

Professor of Chinese history Jonathan Spence died December 25 at the age of 85. His books include The Search for Modern China, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, and God’s Chinese Son.

Attorney Sarah Weddington died December 26 at the age of 76. She wrote A Question of Choice and Texas Women in Politics.

Ecologist Thomas E. Lovejoy III, died December 25 at the age of 80. His books include Climate Change and Biodiversity and The Rediscovery of the Amazon .

Crime novelist Andrew Vachss died December 27 at the age of 79. His books include Strega and Flood.

Sportscaster and football coach John Madden died December 28 at the age of 85. His books include One Knee Equals Two Feet and Hey, Wait a Minute.

Firmer U. S. Senator Harry Reid died December 28 at the age of 82. He wrote The Good Fight and Searchlight: The Camp that Didn’t Fail.

Design magazine editor Beverly Russell died December 11 at the age of 87. Her books include Women of Design and Women of Taste.

Novelist Keri Hulme died December 27 at the age of 74. Her books include The Bone People and Te Kaihau/The Windeater.

Lawyer and founder of the Pension Rights Center Karen Ferguson died December 23 at the age of 80. She wrote Pensions in Crisis and The Pension Book.

Author Mameve Medwed died December 26 at the age of 79. Her books include How Elizabeth Barrett browning Saved my life and Mail.

Actress Betty White died December 31 at the age of 99. Her books include If You Ask Me and Here We Go Again: My life in Television.

Photographer Sabine Weiss died December 28 at the age of 97. Her books include 100 Photos de Sabine Weiss and Intimes Convictions.

Barrister and historian Frank Callanan died December 12 at the age of 65. He wrote The Parnell Split and T M Healy.

Poet Ethna McKiernan died December 12 at the age of 70. Her work includes Caravan, The One Who Swears You Can’t Start Over and Sky Thick with Fireflies.

Austrian Holocaust survivor Gertrude Pressburger died December 31 at the age of 94. She wrote Gelebt, erlebt, uberlebt.

Transgender advocate and former merchant seaman April Ashley died December 27 at the age of 86. She wrote First Lady.

Founder of the Urban Institute William Gorham died December 28 at the age of 91. He wrote The Urban Predicament.

Prominent scholar of Shakespeare and renaissance drama Arthur F. Kinney died December 25 at the age of 88. Among the numerous books he wrote or edited were A Companion to Renaissance Drama and Shakespeare by Stages.

French television personality Igor Bogdanoff died December 28 at the age of 72. His death was followed a few days later by the death of his twin and co-author Grichka. They both died of Covid-19 Their books include Before the Big Bang, Le visage de dieu, and La Machine Fantome.

Former principle horn of the Chicago Symphony Dale Clevenger died January 5 at the age of 81. He wrote The Dale Clevenger French Horn Method.

Teacher Lalage Bown died December 17 at the age of 94. Her work includes Two Centuries of African English. And Towards a Commonwealth of Scholars.

Musician Bill Staines died December 5 at the age of 74. He wrote All God’s Critters.

Lee Server died December 28 at the age of 68. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects but especially on pulp fiction and Hollywood biographies; for example Robert Mitchum, Ava Gardner, and Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers.

Playwright Paul Carter Harrison died December 27 at the age of 85. His works include Totem voices, Kuntu Drama and Black Light: The African American Hero.

Children’s book author Steve Jenkins died December 26 at the age of 69. His books include What do you do with a Tail like That and Actual Size.

Historian Iain R. Smith has died at the age of 82. His books include The Origins of the South African War and The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.

Medieval historian Bernard F. Reilly died December 10 at the age of 96. His books include The Kingdom of Leon-Castilla and The Medieval Spains.

Sociologist Sarah McLanahan died December 31 at the age of 81. Her books include Growing Up with a Single Parent and edited Social Policies for Children.

Mystery writer G.M. Ford died December 1 at the age of 74. His best-known work is Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca?.

>46 Crypto-Willobie: Sad to read this - and also a bit disturbed that I didn't see this news earlier. I used to see him speak at crime fiction events and a crime fiction reader/reviewer friend who lived in Seattle and who died a few years ago used to talk about him.

This is the most informative post I've found on his death, from the Seattle Mystery Bookstore. Also, he would have been 76.

https://mysteryish.wordpress.com/2021/12/03/r-i-p-g-m-ford/

Actress and singer Ruth Silvestre died December 29 at the age of 92. Her books include A House in the Sunflowers, Reflections of Sunflowers, and A Harvest of Sunflowers.

>47 elkiedee: I got the age from the notice in Shelf Awareness, a booksellers' online newsletter. I may have copied the age wrong.

>45 varielle: It's not really the most important thing anyway. Sometimes those things are wrong, or whoever's trying to find out an age looks at an old source which says XYZ 74 and just copies it without checking to notice that XYZ was actually 74 in 2019 (for \nx look coexample). I'm sure it's very easily done by anyone who's trying to check loads of biographical details very frequently. I will follow up posts and look for more info if they're about someone whose work I've read, who I've heard speak or had a chat with in person at events (that would be mostly be between 2001 and 2007 when I went to a lot of book events) or chatted with online in various places. Or if it's a person whose work I've been intending to read for a while.

>48 varielle:

I found the notice in Shelf Awareness and it does indeed say 76, oops!

Rock guitarist Robin Le Mesurier died December 22 at the age of 68. He wrote Rock ‘n’ Roll Cuisine and A Charmed Rock ‘n’ Roll Life.

Activist Michael McColgan has died at the age of 83. He wrote Open Your Hearts.

Short story writer Uschi Gatward died December 30 at the age of 49. She wrote English Magic.

Founder of the marital aid company Adam & Eve, Phil Harvey died December 2 at the age of 83. He wrote Devotional: Erotic Stories for the Sensual Mind.

Memoirist Lars Eighner died on December 23 at the age of 73. His works include Travels with Lizbeth and Pawn to Queen Four.

Motor sports photographer Jesse Alexander died December 14 at the age of 92. His books include Driven: The Motorsport Photography of Jesse Alexander and Ferrari Grand Prix Moments.

The translator of many Tintin novels Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper died December 12 at the age of 98. Her works include The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus and Tintin in Tibet.