Russell Hoban, author of the beloved Frances series and the stunning Riddley Walker, has died
by sernabad
Russell Hoban, wide-ranging author who created two famous and famously disparate characters (Frances the badger, star of the beloved, eponymous, children's series, and Riddley Walker, the face and voice of a horrific dystopian future), died December 13th in London.
An illustrator by training, Hoban's Frances series, starting with Bedtime for Frances (1960), is still popular today. This six-book series (the last was Egg Thoughts, and Other Frances Songs) features a lovable Badger named Frances.
When he turned to adult fiction, Hoban stunned the literary world with his wildly creative Riddley Walker (1980). Set 2000 years in the future, it is written in an invented language, similar to English. Well worth the concentration required to read this ground-breaking novel, Hoban described his twisted language as "...a worn-down, broken-apart kind of English."
Hoban, who was 86, had recently been diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
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