Deaths in July - 2012

Playwright Jack Richardson died July 1 at the age of 78. He was the author of The Prodigal and Gallows Humor.

British comedy writer and actor Eric Sykes died July 4 at the age of 89. He was the author of If I don't write it Nobody else Will, UFOs are coming Wednesday and Eric Sykes' Comedy Heroes.

Oscar winning actor Ernest Borgnine died July 7 at the age of 95. His autobiography was called Ernie: The Autobiography.

Stephen R. Covey died July 16 of complications from injuries he sustained in a bicycle accident three months ago. He wrote the bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He was 79.

Culinary legend Marion Cunningham died July 11 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She wrote Lost Recipes: Meals to Share with Friends and Family and The Breakfast Book, among others. She was 90.

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Raspberry died July 17 after battling prostate cancer. He wrote Looking Backward at Us. He was 76.

Donald J. Sobol, best known for his Encyclopedia Brown children's mystery series, died July 11 of natural causes. He was 87.

Else Holmelund Minarik, beloved for her Little Bear series of children's books which were illustrated by Maurice Sendak , died July 12. She was 91.

Longtime Sports Illustrated journalist and editor Robert W. Creamer died July 18 at age 90. He wrote Babe, considered by many to be the best biography of baseball legend Babe Ruth.

Egyptian novelist and short story writer Mohamed el-Bisatie died July 14 at age 74. He wrote more than a dozen books, six of which have been published in english translation:
A Last Glass of Tea and Other Stories
Houses Behind the Trees
Clamor of the Lake
Over the Bridge
Hunger
Drumbeat

Dutch poet Rutger Kopland died earlier this month at age 77. At least two of his books were translated into english:
What Water Left Behind and A World Beyond Myself: Selected Poems

Holocaust survivor and author Berthe Meijer died July 10 at age 74. She wrote Life After Anne Frank, a memoir of her experiences and acquaintance with the Frank sisters in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

American environmentalist, historian, journalist and author, Philip L. Fradkin, died July 8 at age 77. He wrote more than a dozen books, including California : the golden coast and Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy

Masaharu Matsushita, son-in-law of Panasonic's founder, died July 16 at age 99. He wrote The Mind of Management: Fifty Years with Konosuke Matsushita

Tom Davis, prolific writer for the acclaimed television show, Saturday Night Live, died July 19 at age 59, from throat and neck cancer. He wrote Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There, a memoir of his years with the show.

Renowned soul-food restaurateur Sylvia Woods died July 19 at age 86. She co-authored Sylvia’s Soul Food and Sylvia’s Family Soul Food Cookbook: From Hemingway, South Carolina, to Harlem.

Alexander Cockburn died July 21 after a two-year fight with cancer. He was 71. A couple of his works are: The Golden Age Is in Us: Journeys & Encounters 1987-1994 and Corruptions of Empire

Multi-talented Jacqueline Piatigorsky died July 15 at age 100. She wrote Jump in the Waves: A Memoir

Stuart R. Schram, nuclear physicist and Mao scholar, died July 8 from complications of a stroke. He was 88. He wrote The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung and Mao Tse-Tung, among others.

Composer, producer, writer Ilhan Mimaroglu died July 17 of pneumonia. He was 86. While his many written works appeared in his native Turkish, one, Other Words, was published in English.

Sally Ride, physicist, science writer, and first U.S. woman in space, died July 23 after battling pancreatic cancer. She was 61.

She co-authored several books, including The Mystery of Mars and To Space and Back

Children's and YA author Margaret Mahy died July 23 at the age of 76. A few of her more than 120 books include The Haunting, The Changeover and Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles.

Actor Chad Everett best known for his role as Dr. Joe Gannon on the Medical Center television series, died July 24 at the age of 75. He was the author of a book of poetry called A Toast to Shelby.

I am sorry to hear this. He was one of my first pre-adolescent crushes.

Robert S. Ledley, inventor of the whole-body CT scanner, died July 24 at age 86. The cause of death was Alzheimer's disease.

He co-authored many works, including Cross-sectional Anatomy: Atlas for Computerized Tomography

General Sir David Fraser died July 15 at the age of 91. He was the author of Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Will: A Portrait of William Douglas Home, And We Shall Shock Them: The British Army in the Second World War and a memoir Wars and Shadows.

Suzy Gershman died July 25 at age 64. Her shopping guides sold millions and included Born to Shop New York, Born to Shop Paris, Born to Shop Hong Kong and so on.

Irvin Faust, guidance counselor turned successful novelist, died July 24 at age 88. He wrote seven novels, including The Steagle and Willy Remembers. He also published two volumes of short stories, one of which is called Roar Lion Roar and Other Stories

Tony Martin, whose singing career spanned six decades, died July 27 at age 98. Along with his wife, Cyd Charisse, and Dick Kleiner, he wrote The Two of Us, a memoir of their lifelong partnership onstage and off.

I am truly grieved to hear this.

BTW, the Tony Martin you have linked to is not the singer.

Thanks for letting me know, MerryMary. The book link was incorrect, too; once I got that straightened out, I couldn't get proper touchstones to work for (the correct) Tony Martin or Cyd Charisse.

Pioneer filmmaker Chris Marker died July 29 at age 91. He wrote La Jetée: ciné-roman, among others.

Bestselling Irish author Maeve Binchy died July 30 at age 72. She wrote Circle of Friends, Tara Road and 14 other novels, plus four collections of short stories, a play and a novella.

sorry to hear about Binchy. one of my favorite authors.

Gore Vidal died July 31 at age 86. He wrote so many bestsellers --so many "firsts". His play, The Best Man is on Broadway right now. A few of his many, many works include LINCOLN, The Golden Age, and Julian.

One of my all-time favorite writers. I just wrote to his representative on Monday, asking if Mr. Vidal would finish the much-anticipated addition to his "American Chronicles" series about the Mexican-American War. :-/

Gore Vidal, prolific author and playwright, died at 86 of complications of pneumonia at his home in Hollywood Hills, CA, on July 31, 2012

PS & PB you two must have been on the same wavelength at exactly the same time.

Or on Twitter at exactly the same time.

Controversial archaeologist James Mellaart died July 29 at the age of 86. A few of his books include Catal Huyuk, a Neolithic Town in Anatolia, Early Civilizations of the Near East and The Neolithic of the Near East.

Cognitive psychologist George A. Miller died July 22 at the age of 92. A few of his books include Language and Communication, Plans and Structure of Behavior and Psychology: The Science of Mental Life.

Biographer Gene Smith died July 25 at the age of 83. A few of his biographies include The Shattered Dream: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression and When the Cheering Stopped.

Expert on needlework tools Diane Pelham Burn died July 12 at the age of 79. She was the author of Thread Winders for Collectors.

Former head of African American studies at Yale Roy S. Bryce Laporte died July 31 at the age of 78. He was co-author of Caribbean Immigration to the United States.

Spanish author Esther Tusquets died July 23 at the age of 76. She was the author of the trilogy The Same Sea as Every Summer, Love is a Solitary Game and Stranded.

Archaeologist and historian Brian Dobson died July 19 at the age of 80. He was co-author of Hadrian's Wall, The building of Hadrian's Wall and Inscriptions of Roman Britain.

Historian of Russian history Harold Shukman died July 11 at the age of 81. A few of his books include Stalin's Generals, Stalin (Pocket Biographies), and The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution.

Economist Ian Little died July 13 at the age of 93. He was the author of Project Appraisal and Planning for Developing Countries and his memoir Collections and Recollections.