Obits

Novelist and memoirist Maureen Howard, 91, died in New York on Sunday. Her 1978 memoir, Facts of Life, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and her novels Grace Abounding, Expensive Habits, and Natural History were all finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She also received a Guggenheim fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Book packager Jim Charlton, 82, who started his career at Doubleday and went on to found James Charlton Associates, died on February 13 from complications of the seasonal flu. Nick Beilenson, former publisher of Peter Pauper Press, died February 22 from complications from Covid-19. He took over the press from his parents in 1981, along with his wife Evelyn Loeb.

Book buyer at Classic Bookshop in Palm Beach, FL Dan Foster died unexpectedly at home on March 1. He was buyer at the store for 25 years.

Politcal satirist P.J. O’Rourke, 74, died on February 15 of complications of lung cancer. His books included Parliament of Whores, and most recently How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016.

Valarie Boyd, 58, author of Wrapped in Rainbows and editor of the forthcoming Gathering Blossoms Under Fire by Alice Walker (to be published by Simon & Schuster on April 12), died on February 12. She was working on an anthology titled Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic. Dana Canedy, svp and publisher of Simon & Schuster said, “We are deeply saddened by the news of the death of Valerie Boyd. Boyd was a tremendous talent who touched so many with her generous spirit and deep commitment to storytelling.”

Tom Dupree, 72, who was an editor at Bantam and Harper Collins, died on February 7 at his home in New York City of cardio-respiratory arrest. Penguin Random House writes in their internal newsletter, “Gracious and soft-spoken, he loved his job, and his enthusiasm was contagious.”