Author Donald Westlake died 31 December 2008 of a heart attack. Born 12 July 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, he was best known as a mystery writer. He was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1993, won three Edgars, and was nominated for an Academy Award for screenplay writing (for The Grifters, 1991).
His first novel, The Mercenaries, was published in 1960, and he quickly adopted several pseudonyms to enable him to publish more than one book a year (at a time when conventional wisdom said publishing too many would be bad for sales). In later years, he limited himself to writing about “John Dortmunder” under his own name, and about his anti-hero “Parker” under the name Richard Stark. His next novel Get Real, is still in process, and scheduled to be published in April.
Don D’Ammassa writes that “in addition to his many mysteries, Donald Westlake wrote short sf and fantasy stories, of which the best is probably ‘Nackles’, which features the anti-Santa Claus. The story appeared under the byline Curt Clark, as did his sf novel, Anarchaos (1963). A collection of his short sf appeared as Tomorrow’s Crimes in 1992.”
Westlake is survived by his second wife, Abigail Adams (they married in 1979), four sons, two stepdaughters, one stepson, one sister, and four grandchildren.