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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Monday, December 06, 2004 Joseph Hansen dies The AP is reporting the death of Joseph Hansen, a pioneer in the genre of mystery fiction.Mystery novelist Joseph Hansen dies at 81 California writer was trailblazer for gays in the genre The Associated Press Updated: 9:45 a.m. ET Dec. 6, 2004 LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - Joseph Hansen, a mystery novelist known for crisp, lean prose and for creating one of his genre’s first gay protagonists in the character of Dave Brandstetter, has died at the age of 81. Hansen died of heart failure at his home on Nov. 24, his family reported. He had long suffered from respiratory illness. He had already published five novels and a collection of short stories dealing frankly with homosexual subject matter under the name James Colton when “Fadeout,” the first of 12 Brandstetter mystery novels, was released in 1970. Brandstetter was a tough, street-smart shamus who was typical of the genre in every way except one. “My joke was to take the true hard-boiled character in American fiction tradition and make him homosexual,” Hansen told the Orange County Register in 1998. “He was going to be a nice man, a good man, and he was doing to do his job well.” San Francisco lawyer Michael Nava, who writes a series of mysteries featuring gay attorney Henry Rios, credited Hansen as a pioneer. “Not that he was just a good gay writer, but he is right up there with Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald in terms of being one of the great California mystery writers,” Nava said. In all, Hansen wrote nearly 40 books, including mainstream novels and a series of semi-autobiographical works based on his early years as a struggling writer. He also taught fiction workshops, published poems in The New Yorker and produced a local radio show in the 1960s called “Homosexuality Today.” Hansen’s wife, Jane Bancroft, died in 1994. He once described their relationship as that of a gay man and woman who happened to love each other. “Here was this remarkable person who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We were married 51 years. So something was right about it, however bizarre it may seem to the rest of the world,” he said. The couple had a daughter who later underwent gender reassignment. He is Hansen’s only survivor.I didn't discover Hansen until relatively late in my reading life, and then devoured all his Dave Brandstetter books one after another in a week. Hansen had the ability to depict gay men without apology or excuses. He never flinched from stereotypes, but most of his characters were just ordinary people trying to get along in a difficult world. In the final Dave Brandstetter novel, Brandstetter dies of a heart attack (or so the reader is left to believe). Now Hansen himself has gone. Other writers have followed in his footsteps: Laurie King comes to mind as one of the best—but Hansen was the first, and his passing leaves us all the poorer. posted by Liz @ 11:33 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. 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The AP is reporting the death of Joseph Hansen, a pioneer in the genre of mystery fiction.Mystery novelist Joseph Hansen dies at 81 California writer was trailblazer for gays in the genre The Associated Press Updated: 9:45 a.m. ET Dec. 6, 2004 LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - Joseph Hansen, a mystery novelist known for crisp, lean prose and for creating one of his genre’s first gay protagonists in the character of Dave Brandstetter, has died at the age of 81. Hansen died of heart failure at his home on Nov. 24, his family reported. He had long suffered from respiratory illness. He had already published five novels and a collection of short stories dealing frankly with homosexual subject matter under the name James Colton when “Fadeout,” the first of 12 Brandstetter mystery novels, was released in 1970. Brandstetter was a tough, street-smart shamus who was typical of the genre in every way except one. “My joke was to take the true hard-boiled character in American fiction tradition and make him homosexual,” Hansen told the Orange County Register in 1998. “He was going to be a nice man, a good man, and he was doing to do his job well.” San Francisco lawyer Michael Nava, who writes a series of mysteries featuring gay attorney Henry Rios, credited Hansen as a pioneer. “Not that he was just a good gay writer, but he is right up there with Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald in terms of being one of the great California mystery writers,” Nava said. In all, Hansen wrote nearly 40 books, including mainstream novels and a series of semi-autobiographical works based on his early years as a struggling writer. He also taught fiction workshops, published poems in The New Yorker and produced a local radio show in the 1960s called “Homosexuality Today.” Hansen’s wife, Jane Bancroft, died in 1994. He once described their relationship as that of a gay man and woman who happened to love each other. “Here was this remarkable person who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We were married 51 years. So something was right about it, however bizarre it may seem to the rest of the world,” he said. The couple had a daughter who later underwent gender reassignment. He is Hansen’s only survivor.I didn't discover Hansen until relatively late in my reading life, and then devoured all his Dave Brandstetter books one after another in a week. Hansen had the ability to depict gay men without apology or excuses. He never flinched from stereotypes, but most of his characters were just ordinary people trying to get along in a difficult world. In the final Dave Brandstetter novel, Brandstetter dies of a heart attack (or so the reader is left to believe). Now Hansen himself has gone. Other writers have followed in his footsteps: Laurie King comes to mind as one of the best—but Hansen was the first, and his passing leaves us all the poorer.
Mystery novelist Joseph Hansen dies at 81 California writer was trailblazer for gays in the genre The Associated Press Updated: 9:45 a.m. ET Dec. 6, 2004 LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - Joseph Hansen, a mystery novelist known for crisp, lean prose and for creating one of his genre’s first gay protagonists in the character of Dave Brandstetter, has died at the age of 81. Hansen died of heart failure at his home on Nov. 24, his family reported. He had long suffered from respiratory illness. He had already published five novels and a collection of short stories dealing frankly with homosexual subject matter under the name James Colton when “Fadeout,” the first of 12 Brandstetter mystery novels, was released in 1970. Brandstetter was a tough, street-smart shamus who was typical of the genre in every way except one. “My joke was to take the true hard-boiled character in American fiction tradition and make him homosexual,” Hansen told the Orange County Register in 1998. “He was going to be a nice man, a good man, and he was doing to do his job well.” San Francisco lawyer Michael Nava, who writes a series of mysteries featuring gay attorney Henry Rios, credited Hansen as a pioneer. “Not that he was just a good gay writer, but he is right up there with Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald in terms of being one of the great California mystery writers,” Nava said. In all, Hansen wrote nearly 40 books, including mainstream novels and a series of semi-autobiographical works based on his early years as a struggling writer. He also taught fiction workshops, published poems in The New Yorker and produced a local radio show in the 1960s called “Homosexuality Today.” Hansen’s wife, Jane Bancroft, died in 1994. He once described their relationship as that of a gay man and woman who happened to love each other. “Here was this remarkable person who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We were married 51 years. So something was right about it, however bizarre it may seem to the rest of the world,” he said. The couple had a daughter who later underwent gender reassignment. He is Hansen’s only survivor.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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