Let's discuss! When favorite authors die

Over the weekend I learned that Carlos Ruiz Zafon died in 2020. I wouldn't say he was my favorite author having only read three of his books with The Shadow of the Wind being my favorite, but learning about his death caused me to pause and wonder to myself about my varied reactions after learning about the death of certain favorite authors.

One of my favorite childhood authors was Madeleine L'Engle because I loved the book A Wrinkle in Time so much. It seemed to me that L"Engle was one of those ever-present authors who would go on publishing a book a year forever and then shock of all shocks she died in 2007 at age 88. I didn't learn about her death until several years after it occurred and I still went into a sort of shock, immediately joining some Madeleine L'Engle fan group and reading one of her new-to-me books. My immediate reaction (over-reaction) was soon quelled as I learned that a fan club for a dead person isn't very fun and the book I selected to read was pretty awful. It was dated and uninspiring. I am tempted to re-read A Wrinkle in Time, however, in honor of her memory.

Before the death of my favorite poet, Mary Oliver, I remember crying as I read one of her poems. It struck me that when she passed there would be no new, wonderful poems from her and that broke my heart. She died in 2019 of lymphoma and her death brought on a frenzy of poetry reading by me, not just reading her poems but poetry in general. I came to appreciate poetry because I could understand Oliver's poems. "Poetry, to be understood, must be clear," she said. "It mustn't be fancy."

I "met" Terry Pratchett very late in his life and found his writing so funny and charming. The first book I read by Pratchett was A Hat Full of Sky which is the second book in the Tiffany Aching series, a YA side series to Discworld.  I found it so sweet and didn't even realize I had jumped into the middle of the series. Later I read several of his YA stand-alones and the rest of the Tiffany Aching series which ended with The Shepherd's Crown, which was published after his death from early-onset Alzheimer's disease in 2015. As I closed the book on the last page I started to cry thinking about how no more books from this magical writer would ever be published. Several of Pratchett's books remain on my TBR list and I keep thinking that one of these days I'll begin the whole Discworld series by reading The Colour of Magic.

Often time when I learn about the death of an author I will make an attempt to read something they wrote. I returned from my latest trip to the public library with short books by both Toni Morrison and Carlos Ruiz Zaphon. Reading their books and their own words helps keep them alive.

How do you react when you learn about the death of a favorite author? Please share your specific examples in the comment section below.

-Anne