Requiescat en pace

[shakatany]

I read in today's New York Times that Phyllis A. Whitney passed on at the age of 104. Her writing career lasted over half a century as she published her first book in 1941 and her last in 1997 when she must've been around 93. In 1988 she received the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement from the Mystery Writers of America. Years ago she was one of my favorite writers of romantic mysteries. I think the novel I liked best was The Quicksilver Pool set in the aftermath of the Civil War. Requiescat en pace.

Comments

[spikendru.livejournal.com]

I, for one, will certainly miss her! She was 1/3 of the trifecta of my favorite authors while growing up: Phillis Whitney, Victoria Holt, and Andre Norton shaped my love of reading from the beginning.

It's interesting that Norton also wrote well into her nineties (generally with a co-author by then - I'm guessing Norton outlined and plotted the books and the co-author probably actually wrote them.)

Sad days! Phillis Whitney will be missed. I remember really loving Columbella, in addition to The Quicksilver Pool, and Seven Tears for Apollo, but my very favorite was The Turquoise Mask.

[shakatany.livejournal.com]

I still remember the little poem from Columbella though it's been decades since I read it. It went something like this:

Out to the west near the setting sun
Columbella's golden days be done.

I too loved Victoria Holt back in the day and Andre Norton was one of my best beloved SF authors when I was young. She was also one of the few fantasy writers whose works I would read having OD'd on Lang's fairy books when I was a child.

Shakatany