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Terrible News on American Digest’s Gerard Vanderleun
Gerard Vanderleun has entered hospice.
Before Ricochet, there was American Digest for me. I haven’t kept up with him, but Gerard’s recounting of his experience of 9/11 is some of the most powerful writing I’ve ever read. He’s such a talent. . . and a blessing.
Godspeed, Gerard. Our loss is heaven’s gain.
Published in General
Bless him. I remember his name, but cannot place his 9/11 writing. Do you have a link to it?
A piercing and unstinting talent. His media career made for some great tales; he’d been around. He did a stint at Penthouse and had tales to tell about working for the husky-voice porno-mogul Bob Guccione. Those gauzy shots that made Penthouse look different than Playboy? He emptied a can of Aqua Net in the room before he started shooting.
Gerald seemed to withdraw by degrees, year after year, and at the same time he ascended, year by year, to regard the battlefield with rueful, disengaged amusement.
He was – is – one of the first strong voices of the original blogosphere. We never met, but the thing about those days was, you could call up one another out of the blue and say “it’s Vanderleun” and no more need to be said.
Have followed him for some time.
All the good ones are leaving our world poorer. Old Reamus was another who had a weekly mustn’t mis blog.
Growing old in health has its perks. But the terrible side of it is loosing our beloved one by one.
What James said. He is justification for the existence of the Internet, in that if it didn’t exist I probably wouldn’t have encountered his writing. I remember three writers that helped me cope with 9/11: Vandeleun, Richard Hernandez and Lileks.
When my time comes, may I find a small fraction of the grace he displays.
I’m sorry, I can’t find it. Very sorry.
Maybe someone with a different search engine can find it? Google is not helping.
This news is terrible, what a loss!
I have been so saddened by this news. He’s been one of my ‘go-to’ blogs for years. I’ve regarded him as a “writer’s writer.” ’nuff said.
Here are a couple of links for you:
https://americandigest.org/saw-notes-made-september-11-2001-brooklyn-heights/
https://americandigest.org/the-wind-in-the-heights/
If these don’t work, there’s a ‘work around’ you can use. Simply go to Americandigest.org and do a search with ‘in the heights’ and it should take you to his posts about 9/11.
Thanks Susan!
DELETED. Better answer already provided.
At my age all friends seem like old friends although I may have only met them recently. Some of my best friends over the years I never actually met. They didn’t know that I considered them a best friend but I like to think that they would be proud to be included in the grouping. Gerard VanderLeun was someone who I lived with vicariously through his daily blog and corresponded with in a very very limited fashion. His thoughtfulness and implausible humility, served as an inspiration in much of my life over the past decade or so. His poetry was prosaic in the best sense of the word but never Prozac in the worst sense.
It is a rare treat when someone you idolize encourages you in an insightful supportive way. I can only bow before his genius which was tempered by powerful, gentle wisdom. Our lives will have become much less interesting with his passing.
Thank you for this. Every word. What a terrible loss.