Category: people

Stephen Dixon, ‘Experimental Realist’ Author, Dead At 83

“[His] humorous, freewheeling fiction traced the shocks and jolts of romance, aging and everyday life, in an experimental but plain-
spoken style … [He] published well over 500 short stories in The Paris Review, Playboy, Esquire and legions of small magazines across the country. His first book came out only when he was 40, but he made up for lost time in publishing 35 more novels and story collections.” – The Washington Post

After Three Years In Prison, Turkish Author Ahmet Altan Is Freed

“The 69-year-old [author of I Will Never See the World Again] was arrested in 2016 with his brother, the economist and journalist Mehmet Altan, on allegations of spreading ‘subliminal messages announcing a military coup’ on television. Alongside journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, the Altan brothers were charged with attempting to overthrow constitutional order, interfering with the work of the national assembly and the government.” – The Guardian

Playwright William B. Branch Dead At 92

“As a playwright Mr. Branch delved into the black experience, both in the 20th century and earlier, in Off-Broadway plays like A Medal for Willie, about the bitterness that ensues when a black World War II veteran who had been mistreated in the service is decorated posthumously; A Wreath for Udomo, with its theme of colonial oppression in South Africa; and In Splendid Error, about the tangled relationship between the abolitionists Frederick Douglass and John Brown.” – The New York Times

Ernest J. Gaines, Author Of ‘Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman’ And ‘A Lesson Before Dying’, Dead At 86

“Mr. Gaines, who spent his first 15 years on a plantation near Baton Rouge, later moved with his family to Northern California, but in many ways he never left the landscape, rhythms and painful history of his childhood. … In eight novels and many short stories, Mr. Gaines created a fictional world surrounding a town called Bayonne, in St. Raphael Parish, not unlike his boyhood home.” – The Washington Post

‘The Girl With The Golden Eyes, French Singer And Actress Marie Laforêt, Dead At 80

“The daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Ms. Laforêt won a radio talent contest as a teenager and … went on to appear in 37 feature films, including the 1961 dramas Saint-Tropez Blues, where her performance of the title song with rock vocalist Jacques Higelin effectively launched her singing career” — she ultimately sold more than 35 million records as a pop star — and The Girl With the Golden Eyes, a Balzac adaptation with a title that endured for decades as her nickname.” – The Washington Post

Ann Crumb, Musical Theater Star (And Composer George Crumb’s Daughter), Dead At 69

Her most famous role was the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, which she originated in both London and New York (a first for an American in an ALW show), and she garnered a Tony nomination in for the 1992 Broadway adaptation of Anna Karenina. She made most of her later career in regional theater, and she had a notable sideline performing the folk tune settings in her father’s American Songbook series. – The New York Times

Longtime Boston Children’s Theatre Director Accused Of Misconduct By 17 Former Students; He Resigns

An anonymous e-mail, titled “The Threat of Burgess Clark,” described what it said were the experiences of 17 former students who made a range of allegations against Clark, including three who said they were kissed or inappropriately touched by him during private lessons or at his second home in Walden, Vt. The alleged conduct occurred when most of the students were 14 to 18 years old. The e-mail was signed, “The concerned students and parents of Boston Children’s Theatre.” – Boston Globe