Obits

Eve Babitz, 78, author of memoir Eve’s Hollywood and novels including Sex and Rage and L.A. Woman, died on December 17 at U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications of Huntington’s disease.

bell hooks, 69, author and feminist critic, died of renal failure on December 15 at her home in Berea, KY. She was the author of more than 30 books on gender and race, including Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism and We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity.

Author of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Anne Rice, 80, died on December 11 from complications from a stroke, her son Christopher announced on social media. “As my mother, she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity, and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt,” he wrote. “As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions. He said that a public celebration of Rice’s life will take place in New Orleans next year. “This event…will invite the participation of her friends, readers and fans who brought her such joy and inspiration throughout […]

Editor Charlie Conrad, 61, died on November 21 from complications of ALS. Throughout his career, he held positions at New American Library, Warner Books, Doubleday, Broadway, Crown, Penguin, and Berkley. He edited Frances Mayes and Jon Krakauer, as well as THE LAST DUEL, adapted into a 2021 film, and THE TERMINAL SPY, which is slated to become an HBO series. In a statement, PRH said, “Conrad was a beloved colleague by all. [He] was a voracious reader and consumer of magazines and newspapers (he preferred old-school print), a lover of music, good food and wine, and an avid NPR listener. […]

Minnesota poet, author, and translator Robert Bly, 94, died on November 21 at his home in Minneapolis. Bly wrote or translated more than 50 books. He won the 1968 National Book Award for poetry for The Light Around the Body and donated his $1000 winnings to the draft resistance.

Caroline Todd, pseudonymous author of mystery novels with her son under the name Charles Todd, died on August 28. She was 86. Todd’s books take place in English villages after World War I. The mother-son team submitted their first book, A TEST OF WILLS, to Ruth Cavin at St. Martin’s Press in 1996. She agreed to publish it, and it sold out its first print run. “Everyone respected that their books weren’t fluff, that they were about real history, about real people in a real time,” mystery writer Rhys Bowen told the NYT. “They were one of the better mystery […]