Obituaries
Mercedes Sosa, 1935-2009
By D. Lencho, October 10, 2009
Latin American music lost one of its greatest exponents with the death of Argentinean singer Mercedes Sosa last Sunday. The singer’s career, which spanned over five decades, came to fruition during ...
Obituary
Les Paul: A legacy of ground-breaking musical invention
By Tony Cornwell, August 19, 2009
As well as being a beautiful player who never sacrificed musical ideas for flashy displays of technique, Les Paul was responsible for key advances in musical recording techniques.
Writer Budd Schulberg, unrepentant informer, dead at 95
By David Walsh, August 7, 2009
Schulberg was a member of the Communist Party in the late 1930s and subsequently “named names” before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in May 1951. To the end of his life he de...
Walter Cronkite and the US news media
By David Walsh, July 20, 2009
Walter Cronkite, a fixture in a great many American homes as anchorman of the CBS evening news from 1962 to 1981, died in New York City July 17 at the age of 92.
Robert S. McNamara, 1916-2009
Pentagon chief during Vietnam War escalation dead at 93
By Patrick Martin, July 8, 2009
Robert S. McNamara, one of the principal architects of the US war in Vietnam, died Monday morning at the age of 93.
Karl Malden: a serious actor
By David Walsh, July 3, 2009
Malden first made his name in the New York theater as part of a generally left-wing group of writers, directors and performers and later enjoyed a long career in Hollywood extending from the postwar y...
Franklin Rosemont (1943-2009): Leading US surrealist and anthologist of André Breton dies
By Paul Bond, April 25, 2009
The death of Franklin Rosemont, American surrealist and populariser of the work of French poet André Breton, deserves some notice.
Edward Upward: An artistic vision at odds with his politics
By Paul Bond, March 30, 2009
British writer Edward Upward, who died last month, aged 105, was a remarkable figure.
Novelist John Updike dead at 76: Was he a “great novelist”?
By David Walsh, January 29, 2009
A major figure in American literature for the past half-century (his first full-length novel appeared in 1959), John Updike published more than 60 works—novels, collections of short stories, volumes...
Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer: Documentary on famed vocalist
By David Walsh and John Andrews, January 27, 2009
Robert Cavolina and Ian McCrudden’s documentary Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, about singer Anita O’Day, whose career spanned more than 50 years, presents a picture of an extraordinary ...
Harold Pinter: Independent and critical to the last
By Paul Bond, January 5, 2009
Pinter’s opposition to the war in Iraq was deeply embarrassing to the British ruling elite.
Mary Elise Henehan (1925-2008)
By Helen Halyard, January 5, 2009
On December 16, 2008, Mary Elise Henehan died at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the age of 83. She was the mother of Tom Henehan, a political committee member of the Workers League, predec...
