Obits

The Paper Chase author John Jay Osborn, Jr., 77, died on October 19 of squamous cell cancer. The book was adapted into a film starring John Houseman, who won an Academy Award, and a TV show. Osborn wrote four other novels, as well as film and TV scripts, and taught in law schools. Literary agent Lucianne Goldberg died on October 26 at age 87. Goldberg was an author and ghost writer, but became best-known for suggesting that Linda Tripp record her conversations with Monica Lewinsky. As an agent, Goldberg represented celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley and detective in the O.J. Simpson case […]

Mike Davis, 76, MacArthur fellow and author of books including City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear, died at his home in San Diego on October 25.

Carmen Callil, 84, founder of feminist imprint Virago Press, died of leukemia in London on Monday. Born in Australia, Callil founded the press in the UK in 1973, going on to publish Margaret Atwood, Maya Angelou, Angela Carter, and more. The imprint was acquired by the Chatto, Bodley Head and Cape group in 1982, and Callil became managing director of Chatto and Windus. Callil was also the author of nonfiction books including Bad Faith, about Vichy France, and a history of her family called Oh Happy Day.

A memorial for book publisher Merloyd Lawrence, who died in June, will take place on Saturday October 22 at 2 PM at King’s Chapel in Boston. It will also be livestreamed.

British-Canadian crime novelist Peter Robinson, 72, has died. Robinson’s novels include In a Dry Season  (2000), Playing with Fire (2005), Strange Affair (2006), and Piece of My Heart (2007). Jared Bland, outgoing publisher at McClelland & Stewart, who published Robinson’s work for over 20 years, said: “Peter Robinson was an  incredibly gifted writer and a lovely man, and we’re all deeply saddened by his loss. Peter’s  novels, especially his enduring Inspector Banks series, are the kinds of books that transcend their  genre—they’re crime novels, to be sure, but more than that they’re human novels, anchored by an immensely humane character. Banks […]

Chief book buyer at Politics & Prose Mark Laframboise died this week. According to the store’s Facebook page, he joined Politics & Prose as a bookseller nearly 25 years ago and was promoted to the top buying position 11 years ago. He served as president of the board of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. On Facebook, owners Brad Graham and Lissa Muscatine wrote, “It is hard to imagine not seeing Mark hunched at his computer, with a publisher rep at his side, going through his buys for the next season. It is hard to imagine the floor without Mark […]