Thomas Disch (1940-2008)

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Thomas M. Disch committed suicide at his apartment on July 4. He was the author of many award-nominated works, among the best-known being Camp Concentration and “The Brave Little Toaster.”

Locus Online has posted a survey of Disch’s literary career. Patrick Nielsen Hayden reminisces about Disch, the man,  here.

7 thoughts on “Thomas Disch (1940-2008)”

  1. For all of his faults, he was a good critic. And he wrote some good stuff.

    I read his first novel – The Genocides – when it came out and I was 15 or so. Boy, was that way different from anything in Analog.

    Here at Johns Hopkins University Press years ago we published two collections of his poetry, which are OP. And reprinted the novel he co-authored with his partner, Charles Naylor: Neighboring Lives.

  2. I saw that Patrick spoke favorably about the poetry. Now I’m interested in finding some examples. Are there any online?

  3. Links to 2 here:
    http://www.poetrymagazine.org/search_author.html?query=80598

    And this one:
    http://www.strangehorizons.com/2001/20010730/ballade.shtml

    Reading, via YouTube:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IDP8APVw3I

    Jim Henley’s posting: “(The title of this post comes from “The Snake in the Manger,” a Christmas poem that can best be described as “wickedly sweet.”
    http://www.highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2008/07/06/8402

    I recall him talking about one of his early poetry collections: The Right Way To Figure Plumbing. Named such because he came across in the NYPL card catalog (remember those?) a listing for a 19th century book with that title written by a Disch.

    There’s Abebooks.com and of course interlibrary loan for copies to read.

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