Sad news received last week: Beloved University of Texas philosophy professor Robert Solomon died on Jan. 2 of what has been reported in the Austin American-Statesman as pulmonary hypertension. He was 64. Solomon, who taught at UT since 1972, was travelling abroad with wife and fellow professor Kathleen Higgins en route to see his brother Jon in Rome when he collapsed at the Zurich Airport. An expert in existentialism and business ethics, his impassioned and mindful approach to life and discourse was done animated justice in former student Richard Linklater‘s Waking Life. According to the Statesman, the Department of Philosophy is planning for this fall a conference in Solomon’s memory. The Chronicle offers its condolences to Solomon’s family and friends. His influence on this city cannot be overstated and will live on in his many admirers.
The Austin Chronicle‘s 15th annual Short Story Contest, now closed to submissions, is humming like a bird that doesn’t know the words. Finalists will be alerted on Jan. 31, and winner(s) will be announced on Feb. 7 at a booze-soaked and finger-food-stuffed BookPeople party open to all – whether you’ve previously stalked me or not – then published in the print and/or Web editions of our Feb. 9 issue.
Notable upcoming events of some interest …
Save the date: Feb. 10 is the launch and symposium at Texas State’s Alkek Library for Hecho en Texas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature, edited by the formidable Dagoberto Gilb. The book includes work by Sandra Cisneros, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Tony Díaz, Christine Granados, Macarena Hernández, Rolando Hinojosa, Santiago Jiménez Jr., Arturo Madrid, raúlrsalinas, and Carmen Tafolla. The symposium – taking place from 10am to 5pm – will include their actual physical presence. For more information, see www.swwc.txstate.edu.
At BookPeople on Sunday, Jan. 14, seasoned journalist and Austinite John Taliaferro (Great White Fathers: The True Story of Gutzon Borglum and His Obsessive Quest to Create the Mt. Rushmore National Monument) to read from and sign his In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898. I think I just got a cramp in my hand.
The magic CSPAN BOOK TV bus is bearing down on Austin, aiming for a Saturday, Jan. 27, landing at the Faulk Central Library (800 Guadalupe). From 3 to 5pm, the bus will offer free tours and demos while hosting interviews of TBA local nonfiction authors. Taliaferro would be a good one. I bet H.W. Brands‘ll be there. Maybe Lawrence Wright. Gregory Curtis. I can’t think of any ladies off the top of my head. Looking like a sausage party, fellas.
This article appears in January 12 • 2007.