Cult director Jess Franco, director of classic film Necronomicon, has just died.
Family Man Made Great Chili, Discovered Relativity
This weekend, The New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill
The Oddest Ways People Died in Victorian Times
The Victorian Era may not have had its own version of the Darwin Awards, but thanks to the miracle of newspaper records, we can reflect on the bizarre deaths and disasters of yore. The blog The Baby Died collects morbid clippings from 100 years ago, featuring billiard ball, corset, and umbrella-related demises.
R.I.P. Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt, who may be the greatest Catwoman of them all, died today aged 81. Even competing with Julie Newmar, she managed to make the role her own and captivate a generation. She'll be missed.
Death of (Another) Underappreciated Novelist
Sometimes the trashiest, pulpiest cover hides something truly spectacular underneath. Certainly that's the case with UK scifi writer Barrington J. Bayley. Admired by writers as diverse as Bruce Sterling and William S. Burroughs, Bayley wrote that he "oscillate[s] between two immovable positions: an overwhelming belief…
R.I.P. Algis Budrys, Pioneering Cyber-Novelist And Magazine Editor
I only just found out that pioneering science fiction author and editor Algis Budrys died of cancer on Monday. Budrys is probably best known for his groundbreaking 1977 novel Michaelmas, about a hacker who installs "back doors" in huge government and corporate computers and thus becomes fabulously wealthy by the turn of…
The Master Of Robot Slave Women Is Dead
The father of fembot slaves is dead. Ira Levin's novel The Stepford Wives touched on the gender anxieties of a generation — the men who felt their wives were reneging on their traditional domestic role, and the women who feared their husbands wanted them to be machines. But the most shocking thing about The Stepford…
