Your tern now, my tern later. (Hunter’s invocation, Riddley Walker)
Russell Conwell Hoban, February 4, 1925 – December 13, 2011. Another good craftsman lays down his tools:
The publication of “Riddley Walker,” greeted by an ecstatic front-page rave in the New York Times Book Review, was a career high point for Hoban, who died at the age of 86 last week. Some will know him best for the Frances series of kids’ books (beginning with “Bedtime for Frances”) created with his first wife, the illustrator Lillian Hoban. He also wrote a marvelous middle-grade chapter book, “The Mouse and His Child,” about a pair of threadbare, wandering clockwork rodents, described by one critic as “Beckett for children.” But “Riddley Walker” was the apex of his renown in the world of adult literature, even though he kept writing, by all reports, until the day he died…
I actually discovered Hoban when I was a teenager, looking for books to read to my youngest siblings, back in the days when storybook parents could threaten spankings, smoke, and even watch tv once the kid had finally been packed off to bed. Young Frances Badger was a natural Eeyorist, a cynic of the old school, already wise to the truth that authority has force at its back, that even the greatest pleasures wear out with over-repetition, that friends will gleefully cheat you or desert you under social pressure, that you will be replaced by a younger generation… and yet, always, it is possible to be happy if you work to make your own best life. Pretty weighty stuff for a vocabulary of less than a hundred words, and yet Hoban managed, exquisitely.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2002, Hoban described himself as “simply an addict” to writing. “If I am kept away from writing I become physically unwell. It is art and the creation of art that sustains me. Things like Conrad’s Nostromo or Schubert’s Winterreise or Haydn’s Creation or paintings by Daumier make me feel it is a good thing to be part of the human race,” he said. “It gives me energy… And besides, when the tank is getting empty I think you drive a little faster.”
I loved The Mouse and His Child and Riddley Walker and Turtle Diary, but until now (goddess bless the intertrons) I never knew he’d written Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas, or that he was writing even to the end:
“The most that a writer can do — and this is only rarely achieved — is to write in such a way that the reader finds himself in a place where the unwordable happens off the page,” he wrote. “Most of the time it doesn’t happen but trying for it is part of being the hunting-and-finding animal one is. This process is what I care about.”
Thank you, Mr. Hoban.
chrome agnomen
(embarrassed) never read him. will amend that.
Jerzy Russian
I read the Francis books to my daughter when she was younger. I had no idea he wrote so many other books, or that he was still around until recently. I will have to check out some of his other books in my copious free time.
Redshift
Wow. I read some of the Frances books as a kid, loved The Mouse and His Child later, and a couple of years ago picked up Riddley Walker at a library book sale and read it. I had no idea they were all written by the same person! They’re very different.
Comrade Baron Elmo
Riddley Walker is easily one of the greatest achievements in fiction of the Twentieth or any other century. Lovers of the mysteries and delights of language will be enthralled. But his other novels shouldn’t be overlooked – in particular, Kleinzeit and Pilgermann are both amazing reads in their own right.
RIP, Mr. Hoban. The world of books is a little poorer today for your absence.
LT
Riddley Walker blew my mind. I’ve read it three or four times. I absolutely adore that book. I read a bunch more – The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz is the only one I remember now. Also so rich.
RIP. Thanks for this, Anne laurie.
Redshift
@LT:
I read that one, too! Now I’m going to have to look up a bibliography and find out if there are any others I’ve read that I didn’t remember were his.
drunken hausfrau
I read the Frances books to my kids, but did not know about all these other books! Thank you for this post — I have ordered The Mouse and His Child and Riddley Walker for my kids. (and me!)
The great thing about writers is that their work lives on beyond them.
Elizabelle
Liked Frances, had no idea about the other books.
What a gifted writer.
Jon Marcus
Just another chiming in to say I love Frances and “The Mouse and His Child” but wasn’t aware he’d written so much more. I’ll be off to the library today.
It makes this post all the more bittersweet. Thank you Anne.
Waldo
The Stone Doll of Sister Brute is one my favorite childrens books. How can you not like a book that features a character called Ugly Kicking Dog, who walks around kicking the main character with his hobnail boots? And he’s the most sympathetic character in the story.
MattF
Me too on Riddley Walker. A great, mysterious, phenomenal book.
dance around in your bones
What a marvelous paean to the art and aspiration of writing he wrote (ok, that sentence sounds weird but I’m sure y’all know what I mean).
And the part about ‘living in a world with such art gives me hope/energy?’ (major paraphrase; he said it so much better) ….oh, yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
the antibob
“The Sea Thing Child” is an amazing book about having the courage to enter the world. And “A Near Thing for Captain Najork” is the funniest absurdist story for kids I’ve ever read. Hoban was certainly not just an author for children.
KS in MA
Ahh, Riddley Walker! Gosh, what a book!
Princess
I also loved the Frances books. She was a huge role model for me when I was a little girl.
Garbo
Thank you for telling me. Kleinzeit and Lion are two of my favorite books. I will reread them in his honor.
evap
I discovered the Frances books when my daughters were small. They quickly became favorites. They are the best type of children’s book — funny, quirky, and never pandering. I never heard of Ridley Walker until I saw the piece on Hoban in the NY Times. I will have to read it.
Gary
Thanks for posting this. I missed the obit of the author of one of my favorite books.
Riddley Walker is an amazing work of art. There is a section of the book (in poetic, post-apocalyptic, pidgin English) that I play in my mind in the middle of my long-distance runs at night. It’s all about tuning yourself into the world and being where the power is.
It’s downright spiritual.
And gets me through me the pain in my disintegrating left knee.
handsmile
Devotees of Russell Hoban may enjoy this Guardian interview with the author on what inspired his writing of Riddley Walker, the novel on which his fame will deservedly endure:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/26/russell-hoban-riddley-walker?intcmp=239
This was one of several articles posted by the Guardian with Hoban’s obituary. Also, a robust second for Comrade Baron Elmo’s recommendation (#4) of Pilgermann.
Thanks for this post, Anne Laurie, and to fellow commenters: you’ve inspired me to dig through some boxes to find Hoban’s childrens’ books to read to nieces and nephews on my holiday travels.
karen marie
So sad that Hoban is gone! I too had read the Frances books as a child (in the ’60s), loved them, subsequently read and loved Riddley Walker, but never made the connection. I reread RW several times over the decades, the last time, in early 2007, prompting me to find more of his novels. I subsequently read Turtle Diaries and Her Name Was Lola. Unfortunately, my library system was Hoban deficient.
Riddley Walker is a signpost that I hope will always bring others to discover Hoban’s other rare jewels.
Polish the Guillotines
This is sad, indeed. There are a couple of books from my childhood that stuck with me to the point that I had to make sure I was able to share them with my own kid. One of them was Russell and Lillian Hoban’s Henry and the Monstrous Din. It went out of print eons ago, but I was lucky enough to find a good used copy. Thanks, Russell and Lillian. A lot.
sweetgreensnowpe
“ridley walker” (like “the gormenghast triology) is among the most memorable books i’ve ever read.
he wrote children’s books?
Hob
The Head of Orpheus is a pretty comprehensive fan site done by a guy I know– says a bit about most of the books and has some great links to other material.
I had the privilege of meeting RH a couple times and talking to him over the aether now and then. He was an extraordinary guy, with pretty much the same mix of dark humor and friendly silliness and random knowledge that comes through in the books.