Celebrating Their Talent

Although it is tempting to dwell on the sadness of never again reading a new book by one of the following men, we choose instead to celebrate the amazing words they’ve already put on the page.

Tony Hillerman (May 27, 1925 - October 26, 2008) published several novels, children’s and non-fiction books, but he is best known for his detective novels that took place in the Four Corners area of Arizona and New Mexico. The adventures of the protagonists Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo tribal police were made into movies by the Mystery! series on PBS. Hillerman won several awards for his writing, the Mystery Writers of America awarded Dance Hall of the Dead the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1974 and also awarded Hillerman their Grandmaster Award in 1991, but his New York Times obituary reports that what the author treasured most was the Special Friend of the Dineh (the Navajo people) given to him in 1987 by the Navajo Nation.

Michael Crichton (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) books has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. He is probably most famous for the novels Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, which were both adapted into high grossing films, but also wrote, directed, and produced for film and TV (he's the creator of ER). His awards include an Emmy, a Peabody, and the more unusual distinctions of having a dinosaur called after him (Crichtonsaurus bohlini) and being included on People magazine's list of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People." The Washington Post obituary names Crichton's heroes as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) transformed oral history into a popular literary form. A reviewer for The Financial Times of London described his books as “completely free of sociological claptrap, armchair revisionism and academic moralizing.” He won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for The Good War and was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1997. Two years later, he received the George Polk Career Award in 1999. Explaining how he his hip in later years he said, "I was walking downstairs carrying a drink in one hand and a book in the other. Don't try that after ninety." The Chicago Tribune obituary quotes Terkel's self-chosen epitaph to be "Curiosity did not kill this cat."


May we all have as full lives and rewarding careers as these three.