Category: people

“It is saddening for me to say this, but I doubt that he ever wrote anything which could make a novice reader feel that the theatre (or film, or literature, or music) was an art worth pursuing, or worth attending to, as having some value for civilization. John published many books collecting his reviews, and I read through most of them, but I don’t recall them offering me any insight on why I should care about a given work, or about the art as a whole. I gave them away.” – American Theatre

“As Life magazine’s art editor, Ms. Seiberling helped shape public opinion about the 20th century’s foremost avant-gardist artists” — most notably, Georgia O’Keeffe and the Abstract Expressionists — “encouraging open-minded consideration of their importance.” – The New York Times

He was to theatre criticism as pigeons are to statues, William F. Buckley once observed. “In a style that danced with literary allusions and arch rhetoric — and composed with pen and ink (he hated computers) — he produced thousands of critiques and a dozen books, mostly anthologies of his own work.” – The New York Times

The 28-year-old was a member of one of the first big K-pop girl groups, Kara. She had attempted suicide in May. In her solo career, she had some hits and also some TV and movie roles. – The New York Times

Kappe founded the Cal Poly Pomona architecture program and was fired for being, as he called it, “free-swinging.” But, unlike many a faculty member could or would do now, he picked up his bags, recruited his own faculty, and started another architecture school: “The New School, soon to become the influential Southern California Institute of Architecture, or SCI-Arc, opened in 1972 with 75 students at its original Santa Monica campus.” – Los Angeles Times

Wilson’s “outlandish, often ghoulish cartoons added a bizarrely humorous touch to Playboy, The New Yorker, National Lampoon and other publications in the era when magazines propelled the cultural conversation.” – The New York Times

The Broadway veteran, perhaps best known as the original Wiz in the musical, won a Tony in June for his portrayal of Mercury in Hadestown, and he gave an “instantly iconic speech in which he gave his three rules for ‘longevity'” in the theatre. – American Theatre

Sir Stephen Cleobury conducted the King’s College Choir for nearly 40 years and instituted the annual commissioning of a new Christmas carol. He retired two months ago. “He was influential in the musical world beyond the choir, conducting a number of ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music and the BBC Singers, and through his association with the Cambridge University Musical Society.” – BBC

In the years after the man who invented the essay died in 1592, his remains were moved between several sites. One of those places was a convent in Bordeaux whose building now houses the Musée d’Aquitaine, where a tomb was found in the basement last year. When that tomb was opened recently, there was a coffin with “Montaigne” written on it; scientists will now analyze the wood in the coffin and the bones inside. – Yahoo! (AFP)

As president of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Minton published such classics as Lord of the Flies, The Godfather, and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, and he was “among the first to recognize the potential of mass-market paperbacks … But he was perhaps best known for books that challenged the nation’s prevailing notions and legal definitions of pornography.” – The New York Times