Dammit, another old friend lost. 2006 is really starting to get on my nerves.
Dave Gemmell died yesterday morning in the aftermath of heart surgery.
He and Peter started their careers together at the same publisher, and were always very fond of each other. Dave was a pleasure to know — witty, full of stories, interested in everything, and with a dry sense of humor that never seemed to fail him. I remembering him laughing when I would tease him about being “persistently tall”.
He was a great house guest, too, the kind with whom you stay up talking into the wee hours about life, the universe, and everything. I still remember one time when he holed up for quite a while in the big bathroom in one of the houses we rented in Ireland, because all the Calvin & Hobbes and Far Side books were kept in there, and he’d never seen the Calvin stuff before. He must have spent a couple of hours in there, curled up in the bathroom easy chair and roaring with laughter.
Dave didn’t do as many conventions as he might have, since he had some difficulty with crowds. But at signings he was another of those indefatigable types who will sign absolutely everything no matter how long it takes, make sure that every fan is taken care of, that everyone gets a kind word. A gentleman: a wry, dry, dark-humored, sometimes ironic guy: that was Dave.
Missing him.
[tags]David Gemmell[/tags]
