Category: people

“It is rare to have consensus on the pre-eminence of any person in the arts. But few would argue that Mr. Mekas, who was often called the godfather or the guru of the New American Cinema — his name for the underground film movement of the 1950s and ’60s — was the leading champion of the kind of film that doesn’t show at the multiplex. … In addition to making his own movies and writing prolifically about the movies of others, Mr. Mekas was the founder or a co-founder of institutions that support and promote independent filmmakers” — most notably the journal Film Culture and the museum-library Anthology Film Archives. — The New York Times

As co-founder of André Deutsch’s publishing house and editor there for five decades, Athill was the shepherd — “nanny” was her preferred term — for books by Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, John Updike, Jean Rhys, V.S. Naipaul and many others. Late in life, she won acclaim as an author herself, for a series of memoirs, among them the Costa Prize-winning Somewhere Towards the End. — The Guardian

‘[Her] antic performances took her from vaudeville and nightclubs to Broadway, regional theaters, and film and television roles, including as a sitcom star [of The Mothers-in-Law] and a frequent guest on talk shows.” — The Washington Post

“Mr. Baker, along with the syndicated columnist Art Buchwald, was one of the best-known newspaper humorists of his time, and The Washington Post ranked his best-selling autobiography, Growing Up, with the most enduring recollections of American boyhood — those of James Thurber, H. L. Mencken and Mark Twain.” — The New York Times

“The world’s top specialist for tour laundry, [Hans-Jürgen] Topf has traveled with many of the world’s biggest music acts, including Madonna, Pink and Beyoncé. As tours have become bigger and more professionalized, their logistics have become increasingly daunting. … That’s where ‘der Topf,’ as he likes to call himself, comes in.” — The New York Times

Historian and biographer Kathryn Hughes recounts the improbable career and character of Lee Israel, a talented and diligent biographer who turned into a talented and diligent criminal, alcoholic, and all-around train wreck. — The Guardian

That Mike Pence and other standard-bearers within this movement can regularly lean on King’s legacy is a consequence of how the civil-rights leader has been canonized. When President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law, in 1983—reversing his own objections to the holiday, and earlier ones to King himself—he signaled that America had accepted King in its pantheon of similarly revered leaders, people such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But in order to do so, King’s legacy had to be repackaged in a way similar to theirs.  – The Atlantic

A longtime professor at Harvard University, Glazer, was among the last of the deeply-read thinkers who influenced culture and politics in the mid-20th century. Starting in the 1940s, Glazer was a writer and editor for Commentary and The New Republic. He was a co-editor of The Public Interest, and wrote or co-wrote numerous books.  – Washington Post