Best known for his series of autobiographical dark comics, American Splendor, Harvey Pekar died early yesterday at his home in Cleveland. He had prostate cancer, asthma and high blood pressure and was suffering from depression, but no cause of death was given. He was 70.

A movie was made of American Splendor, starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar. It was released in 2003.

Obits:

Los Angeles Times;  Harvey Pekar dies at 70; comic book author known for ‘American …; ”Rather than merely depressive whingeing, Pekar’s work was capable of radiating an anguished spiritual yearning that fans found to be as ennobling as it was mordantly funny and that some critics regarded as downright Dostoevski-esque in its agonized humanity.”

Newsweek; Goodbye, Cleveland; “Harvey Pekar, who died Monday at the age of 70, should be the patron saint of soreheads. Even when he got successful he stayed cranky, maybe because being a crank was what made him successful’

New York Times; Harvey Pekar, ‘American Splendor’ Creator, Dies at 70; “Pekar…applied the brutally frank autobiographical style of Henry Miller to the comic-book format, creating a distinctive series of dispatches from an all-too-ordinary life.”

Tribute

L.A. Times, Harvey Pekar: An Appreciation, David Ulin

Below is Pekar on the David Letterman Show in 1987, demonstrating his brutal honesty,

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The words used to describe Beryl Bainbridge who died of cancer on Friday, are “mordant” and “acerbic.”

She published more than 15 novels, most of them directly influenced by her childhood in Liverpool. Her 1989 novel, An Awfully Big Adventure, based on her own experience as a struggling actress, was made into a 1994 movie starring Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant.

The Guardian reports that she was still trying to dictate the last pages of her final novel from her hospital bed last week. No news yet on when, or if, it will be published.

Obituaries:

The Guardian, Beryl Bainbridge remembered and a gallery of photos of the author

L.A. Times, Beryl Bainbridge dies; British novelist chronicled human relationships

N.Y Times, Beryl Bainbridge, Mordant Novelist, Is Dead at 77

Washington Post, Obituary: Beryl Bainbridge, acclaimed British novelist, dies at 77

The death of Coach John Wooden brought renewed attention to his many books published by McGraw Hill, all of which rose on Amazon’s best seller list over the weekend.

Coming in July is Coach Wooden’s final book, The Wisdom of Wooden:  A Century of Family, Faith, and Friends. The publisher describes it as “a commemorative of his life…Filled with fond personal memories, warm fatherly advice.” (McGraw Hill press release, via Publishers Marketplace)

The Wisdom of Wooden: A Century of Family, Faith, and Friends John Wooden, Steve Jamison Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 64 pages Publisher: McGraw-Hill – (2010-09-03) ISBN / EAN: 0071751165 / 9780071751162

Dick Francis, a successful jockey who had an even more successful career as a writer, producing over 40 books, died at his home on Grand Cayman island on Sunday.

According to the The Guardian, Francis had an unusual arrangement with his British publisher; as long as he wrote a book a year, all of his books would remain in print. His final novel, Crossfire, written with his son Felix, will be released in August.

The New York Times obituary quotes critic John Leonard who said, “Not to read Dick Francis because you don’t like horses is like not reading Dostoyevsky because you don’t like God.”

As we noted yesterday, Robert Parker, whose recent death is being widely mourned by the reading community, has several more books coming. In addition to the two scheduled for release this year, his agent tells Entertainment Weekly that “a couple more” are in the pipeline and he was “30-40 pages into” a new Spenser novel when he died.

Below are the titles scheduled for this year:

Split Image (Jesse Stone) Robert B. Parker Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-02-23) ISBN / EAN: 0399156232 / 9780399156236

Random House Audio; UNABR; 2/23/10; 9780739357484; $32
Thorndike Large Print; 2/1/10; 9781410421876; hdbk; $35.95
Audio available from OverDrive

Coming in May is the fourth in Parker’s Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch western series, following Appoloosa, Resolution and Brimstone.

Blue-Eyed Devil Robert B. Parker Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 0399156488 / 9780399156489

Random House Audio; UNABR; 5/4/10; 9780307735478; $32

I vividly remember Robert Parker from hearing him speak at an ALA. Very likely, it was an ALA held in Boston, a city I know more through his books than from personal experience. At that event, Parker made gentle but uproarious fun of a bit of library pomposity that went on before he spoke; he was totally charming and had the audience eating out of his hand.

And, now, upon returning from an ALA in Boston, I learn that Parker has died. He was 77 and, according to reports, he died at his desk in his home in Cambridge.

Below are links to some of the first tributes:

• Christian Science Monitor, In appreciation of Robert B. Parker, creator of “Spenser for Hire”
• Entertainment Weekly, In Memoriam: Robert B. Parker
• Wall Street Journal, Robert B. Parker, An Appreciation
• Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, Robert Parker is Dead (includes a full list of tributes)

The most recent Spenser novel, The Professional, came out in October, 2009. His next novel, in the Jesse Stone series, is coming next month.

Split Image (Jesse Stone) Robert B. Parker Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-02-23) ISBN / EAN: 0399156232 / 9780399156236

Random House Audio; UNABR; 2/23/10; 9780739357484; $32
Thorndike Large Print; 2/1/10; 9781410421876; hdbk; $35.95
Audio available from OverDrive

Coming in May is the fourth in his Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch western series, following Appoloosa, Resolution and Brimstone.

Blue-Eyed Devil Robert B. Parker Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 0399156488 / 9780399156489

Random House Audio; UNABR; 5/4/10; 9780307735478; $32

Esther Hautzig meant a lot to me. Her book, The Endless Steppe, a survival story about a family exiled to Siberia during WW II, was one that I read over and over again as a child. I must have borrowed it from the synagogue library, a small room where they trusted you to take and return books on your own. I was in the middle of a run of holocaust books like When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

Thirty years later, when I met Esther Hautzig at a celebration for Books for the Teenaged at New York Public Library, I was speechless. Then I burst into tears; that’s how real the narrator was to me.

Esther passed away on Sunday (read her obituary in the New York Times). Her funeral will be held today in New York City:

Wednesday, November 4, at 1:00
Plaza Jewish Community Chapel
Amsterdam and 91st Street

Full information is available here.

Sad news arrives at the beginning of Teen Read week — one of Norma Fox Mazer’s colleagues, on her Web site Jacket Knack reports that Mazer died over the weekend after a battle with brain cancer (via Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind).

On her own site, Mazer wrote about how she devloped a love of reading. Of course, libraries were a key element and she asked, “Am I prejudiced or is it a fact that people who work in libraries are among the friendliest and most helpful you’re ever going to meet?”

Return the compliment; check to see if you need to replace worn or missing copies of Mazer’s titles.

Milton Meltzer, who wrote an impressive number of nonfiction books for children, died a week ago Saturday. He was 94.

EarlyWord Kids contributor, Lisa Von Drasek describes his influence in the New York Times obituary,

Meltzer was one of the first in a new wave of nonfiction writers who brought lively and passionate writing, grounded in original source material, to middle-grade students and young adults, without talking down to them

Just heard on NPR Morning edition that Sheila Lukins died. She’s an iconic figure who, with her partner Julie Russo, changed the way America cooked in the early 1980’s.  As a young pup librarian the most popular section of our little branch library until tax season was cooking (the first call number that rolled off the tip of my tongue without looking it up was 641.5).

Many of you have replaced and ordered additional copies of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking to meet recent demand. Take a look, it may be time to replace those tattered Silver Palate Cookbooks.

P.S. As a newlywed The Silver Palate was it for me. I never knew that soup started with stock that you made, not a can of Campbells.

Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Workman Publishing Company – (2007-04-30) ISBN / EAN: 0761145982 / 9780761145981

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The New Basics Cookbook Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins Retail Price: $19.95 Paperback: 864 pages Publisher: Workman Publishing Company – (1989-01-10) ISBN / EAN: 0894803417 / 9780894803413

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The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins, Sarah Leah Chase Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: Workman Publishing Company – (1985-01-04) ISBN / EAN: 0894808311 / 9780894808319

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Ten: All the Foods We Love and Ten Perfect Recipes for Each Sheila Lukins Retail Price: $32.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Workman Publishing Company – (2008-11-15) ISBN / EAN: 0761151257 / 9780761151258

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Sheila Lukins All Around the World Cookbook Sheila Lukins Retail Price: $18.95 Paperback: 591 pages Publisher: Workman Publishing Company – (1994-01-05) ISBN / EAN: 1563052377 / 9781563052378

As reported by multiple news sources, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, E. Lynn Harris died on Thursday while on business in L.A.

No cause of death has been reported. His personal assistant said that he collapsed in his Los Angeles hotel room and could not be revived.

He was 54.

Unable to get his first novel, published, Harris self-published Invisible Life in 1991 and sold it from the trunk of his car. It was later picked up by Anchor Books; a hardcover 5th Anniversary Edition was published in 1999. He went on to publish ten NYT bestsellers. His most recent book, Basketball Jones, was published by Doubleday in January. His memoir, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, came out in 2004.

Frank McCourt died yesterday, days after his brother Malachy announced that he was in hospice and not expected to live much longer. In addition to the many obituaries (the best, as usual, is by  William Grimes in the NYT), more personal “appreciations” are also coming; including Lisa Schwarzbaum’s in Entertainment Weekly, about sharing a summer house with McCourt and his wife Ellen as he began writing Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt: Regular guy, extraordinary artist).

McCourt was also an extraordinary teacher, as evidenced by the comments from former students on the NYT ArtsBeat blog.

Readers are showing their appreciation by buying McCourt’s books (Angela’s Ashes went to #49 on Amazon in trade paper and #308 in hardcover; Teacher Man and ‘Tis also rose).

Some wonderful obituaries are coming out about Judith Krug, Director of ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, who died this week. My favorite tribute is this one:

Religious Right Censors’ Worst Nightmare: Why We’ll Miss Judith Krug

It ends with this great suggestion:

If you would like to honor her memory and annoy the Religious Right at the same time, I have the perfect suggestion: Read a banned book.

Reading the obits from the L.A. and NY Times may cause bouts of “what have I done with my life”:

NY Times, Judith Krug, Who Fought Ban on Books, Dies at 69

L.A. Times, Judith F. Krug dies at 69; advocate for librarians opposed censorship 

The repeated themes are “tireless” and “force of nature,” but one thing they don’t mention is the sparkle in her eyes. I remember seeing it we both went to the Association of American Publishers annual meetings, back in the days when they were held in lovely locales. With a naughty smile, she’d make it clear she intended to get full enjoyment out of whatever setting we were in.

Fittingly, her family has asked that  memorial contributions be made to The Freedom to Read Foundation, 50 East Huron, Chicago Illinois 60611.

The NY Times reports that Michael Crichton left two partially-completed novels behind when he died. The first, Pirate Latitudes will be published Nov. 24th The second, an untitled techno thriller will be published in the fall of 2010.

Don’t miss the story about Friday’s memorial service for Kate McClelland and Kathy Krasniewicz in today’s Shelf Awareness:

In Celebration: Kate McClelland and Kathy Krasniewicz