BookChase plublished a list of authors who passed on in 2007. It’s always sad to see a list like this but as one of the blogs readers put it “At least they leave a legacy of their work behind among other things.”

January:

Robert Anton Wilson, 74 – co-author of “The Illuminatus Trilogy”
Art Buchwald, 81 – author and humorist
Sidney Sheldon, 89 – author
Molly Ivins, 62 – political writer and humorist
Peter Tompkins, 87 – author of “The Secret Life of Plants”

February:

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 89 – historian
Marianne Fredriksson, 79 – much-admired Swedish author
Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, 89 – German author of “Das Boot”

March:

Henri Troyat, 95 – prolific French author
Robert E. Petersen, 80 – magazine publisher
Michael Dibdin, 60 – author most famous for his “Aurelio Zen” mysteries

April:

Kurt Vonnegut, 84 – author
David Halberstam, 73 – historian and journalist famous for baseball writing

May:

Lloyd Alexander, 83 – author of children’s books
Mark Harris, 84 – most famous for his baseball books like “Bang the Drum Slowly”

June:

William Meredith, 88 – prize-winning poet
Richard Rorty – American philosopher
Nazek al-Malaika, 85 – Iraqi poet
Fred T. Saberhagen, 77 – science fiction author

July:

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 68 – writer of historical romances
John Graham, 80 – author of children’s books

August:

Grace Paley, 84 – short story writer and poet
Edward Seidensticker, 86 – translator of Japanese literature

September:

Madeleine L’Engle, 88 – author most famous for “A Wrinkle in Time”
Robert Jordan, 58 – fantasy author

October:

Peg Bracken, 89 – author of the “I Hate to Cook Book”

November:

Norman Mailer, 84 – author and celebrity
Ira Levin, 78 – author most famous for “Rosemary’s Baby”

December:

Elizabeth Hardwick, 91 – author and critic, co-founder of The New York Review of Books