BuffettNews.com

This is very sad news to start the day with. Hillerman's last couple books had been below his brilliant standard, so I kind of figured he was in poor health, but still a shock. Hillerman was a genius. Born near Konawa, Oklahoma in 1925, his books about the Navajo Tribal police were masterpieces of simple, beautiful prose. If you haven't read Hillerman, I urge you to do so. Start with "Skinwalkers", "The Dark Wind", "A Thief of Time" or the first one in the series, "The Blessing Way".

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I actually became a Hillerman fan by accident, back about ten years ago. A book club sent me his "The First Eagle" by mistake, and I liked it...a lot. To whichever book club dunderhead made that mistake, thank you very much!

I had the pleasure of sharing a meal with Tony and his wife several, okay more than several years ago, at a mutual friend's house. He was a very charming gentleman who was extremely knowledgeable about the Dinah, the Hopi, the Zuni, the Tiwa and the Apache cultures. We had a wonderful discussion about the contrasts between the perception held by the general public and that held by those who had actually gotten to know the different cultures. He told wonderful stories both in person and in his books. No wonder my anthropology adviser was such a good friend to him!

Sail on Tony!

Sail on Tony - you provided hours and hours of entertainment for me when I read your books.

I am such a Hillerman fan. Love Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee .... you will really be missed, especially in this pulp fictoin world. Have read every one of his books. They are the few I put on the shelf and re-read.

Saw this in the newspaper today...sad news, we really enjoyed his books; even have a few of them on tape.
As his daughter said, he was born a storyteller.