So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Adieu

2008 was not a good year for the literary world. We lost many great talents. So here is a list of some of the writers who left us this past year.


George MacDonald Fraser Died January 2, 2008. Born April 2, 1925. He wrote the Flashman series and screenplays for the '70s Musketeer movies.


Margaret Truman Daniel Died January 29, 2008. Born February 17, 1924. She was a writer, mostly of mystery novels like Murder at the White House and daughter of President Harry Truman.


Phyllis Whitney Died February 8, 2008. Born September 9, 1903. Widely traveled, she was a prolific author of young adult (The Mystery of the Haunted Pool) and adult (Woman Without a Past) books. It is reported that she was working on her autobiography when she died at 104.



William F. Buckley, Jr. Died February 27, 2008. Born November 24, 1925. Buckley was a conservative commentator and the publisher of the National Review. He wrote God and Man at Yale just after his college graduation.



Janet Kagan Died February 29, 2008. Born circa 1945. She wrote Uhura's Song, which was part of the Star Trek series and won a Hugo for "The Nutcracker Coup."



Sir Arthur C. Clarke Died March 19, 2008. Born December 16, 1917. Not only did he write science fiction (2001, Childhood's End), he developed the concept of the geosynchronous communications satellite. He lived near the coast of Sri Lanka and survived the tsunami of 2004.



Tasha Tudor Died June 18, 2008. Born August 28, 1915. An illustrator of classic children's books like The Secret Garden, she also wrote some of her own and won two Caldecott medals along the way.


George Carlin Died June 22, 2008. Born May 12, 1937. These days, you can say those seven words on cable television. He also wrote a number of books including When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? and never lost his passion for political humor.



Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Died August 3, 2008. Born December 11, 1918. He wrote the controversial One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, won the Nobel Prize, was expelled from the Soviet Union and lived in Vermont from the mid-70s until he returned to Russia in the '90s.



Tony Hillerman Died October 26, 2008. Born May 27, 1925. Hiller wrote a series of Navajo mysteries featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.



Studs Terkel Died October 31, 2008. Born May 16, 1912. A prolific non-fiction writer who wrote books that usually focus on the working poor and the human condition such as Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith and Working. During his life, he was a jack-of-many trades and an active interviewer.

Michael Crichton Died November 4, 2008. Born October 23, 1942. Crichton's books were often turned into movies. Some of his more ones are The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. He also created the popular TV series ER.


Julius Fast Died December 15, 2008. Born November 11, 1914. Mr Fast won the first Edgar award for a mystery short story however he mostly wrote popular nonfiction like Body Language and Sexual Chemistry.