Britain's first homegrown existentialist star, he failed to follow up the huge success of his 1956 book, The OutsiderFor a few dazzling months, Colin Wilson, who has died aged 82, was taken at his own valuation in his diary as "the major literary genius of our century", a writer destined to be "Plato's ideal sage and king". The phenomenal reviews and sales of his first book, The Outsider (1956), led him to be seen as a potential saviour of the human spirit, a thinker who might find a way through the spiritual nullity of the postwar years.The book remains extraordinary, more for its reach than its grasp. It was an attempt to map a single, negotiable path of mysticism from the span of recent western art and philosophy. Wilson looked for the path through case studies of the agonies and ecstasies of thinkers, artists and men of action including Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Vaslav Nijinsky, Vincent van Gogh, Hermann Hesse and Lawrence of Arabia. He condensed them into a single type, "the Outsider", a questing spirit straddled between devastating experiences of nothingness and moments of the highest insight."Our life in modern society is a repetition of Van Gogh's problem," Wilson said, "the day-to-day struggle for intensity that disappears overnight, interrupted by human triviality and endless pettiness." The book was excitingly written, with a sense of revelation. The failing, which took longer to emerge, was that it oversimplified... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
Award-winning, versatile, and prolific children's author Eve Bunting died on October 1 in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 94. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Caldecott Medal-winning author-illustrator Ed Young, best known for his reinterpretations of folktales and legends from his native China, and evocative illustrations rendered in a range of mediums, died September 29 in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 91. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Author and performer Echo Brown, widely praised for her genre-fluid YA novels that blend memoir and magical realism, died September 16 from renal failure. She was 39. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend Libby Hall, who has died aged 81, was a talented street and press photographer, writer and collector.Her collection of thousands of vintage dog photographs was published as four books by Bloomsbury between 2000 and 2007, then acquired by the Bishopsgate Institute, which called it... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-07 16:19:38 UTC ]
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American screenwriter and producer behind the creation of the hugely successful soaps Dallas and Knots LandingDavid Jacobs, who has died aged 84, was an aspiring novelist when he created the show Dallas, a worldwide phenomenon and US television’s first peak-time soap success since Peyton Place.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-23 13:56:48 UTC ]
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Radio and television producer who was head of plays at the BBC and steered productions of work by Harold Pinter, Alan Plater, Ibsen, Strindberg and Athol FugardNo BBC radio or television producer in the postwar era was more admired within his profession than Michael Bakewell, who has died aged... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-01 16:09:15 UTC ]
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My cousin Carol Smith, who has died aged 84, was a literary agent and author best known for her thrillers Kensington Court (1996) and Unfinished Business (2000).Born in London to Winifred (nee Mapleston), a teacher, and David Smith, a businessman, Carol attended the North London Collegiate,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-25 15:31:17 UTC ]
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Award-winning children's author and poet Mary Ann Hoberman died July 7 following a long illness; she was 92. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Editor with the Paris-based publisher Gallimard Jeunesse who was determined to give British children’s books a presence in FranceChristine Baker, who has died aged 71 of cancer, did much to give British children’s books a presence in France, making them readily available to families and schools... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-10 16:54:07 UTC ]
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Julia Bryan-Wilson is an art historian of enormous productivity, insight, range, and flair, with copious writing and curating credits, abundant laurels from diverse institutions, and generations of student acolytes. Her library to date includes Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-07 08:52:21 UTC ]
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Author of a series of comic novels that focused on the tragi-comic nature of relationships and the general absurdities of lifeMavis Cheek, who has died aged 75, was the author of a series of comic novels that cast an acute eye on middle-class marriage and relationships and marked her out as one... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-04 16:07:50 UTC ]
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American editor who worked with many celebrated authors including Anthony Burgess, Doris Lessing and Joseph HellerRobert Gottlieb, who has died age 92, was the outstanding literary editor of the second half of the 20th century. Among the renowned novelists he worked with were Doris Lessing, Toni... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-26 16:14:17 UTC ]
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Caroline Raphael, who has died of Parkinson’s disease aged 85, was for 20 years editor-in-chief of The Good Hotel Guide. She had worked on every edition from the first, in 1978, until her retirement in 2021, when the 2022 edition had gone to press.The Guide was launched by the literary agent... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-28 16:03:11 UTC ]
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Children’s illustrator whose picture books with his wife, Elizabeth, and authors such as Ted Hughes, are enjoyed worldwideThe illustrator Gerald Rose, who has died aged 87, was the youngest winner of the Kate Greenaway medal for children’s book illustration, in 1960. Then still in his mid-20s... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-12 17:25:36 UTC ]
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Publishers Group West sales rep Ty Wilson says he’s been in the book industry since the “Rolodex cards and clipboards era.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Niels Aaboe, most recently an editor at Rowman & Littlefield as well as its Lyons Press imprint, died on April 17. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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We spoke with Wilson, who played Dwight Shrute on the NBC sitcom 'The Office', about 'Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution' (Hachette Go, Apr.), a profound, humorous, reflective look at faith and spirituality. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher whose eponymous company changed the face of children’s nonfiction with its fact-filled illustrated booksPeter Usborne, who has died aged 85, created a publishing company that changed the look and feel of nonfiction books for children. Although they were widely used in schools, Usborne... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-14 15:02:43 UTC ]
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Award-winning author Julie Anne Peters, best known for her groundbreaking YA novels featuring complex LGBTQ+ characters navigating relationships and exploring issues of identity, died on March 21 following a long illness; she was 71. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Children’s author who devised the adventures of the Pig family and illustrated stories including Dick King-Smith’s The Sheep-PigThe writer and illustrator Mary Rayner, who has died aged 89, was best known for her picture books about Mr and Mrs Pig, and the escapades of their 10 piglets. In... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-03-23 16:59:39 UTC ]
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