Late word last night of the sudden passing of a fine fellow, Thomas Vinciguerra, who authored Cast Of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E.B. White, James Thurber, And The Golden Age Of The New Yorker, and edited Backward Ran Sentences: The Best Of Wolcott Gibbs. Mr. Vinciguerra, who contributed to The New Yorker‘s Talk Of The Town, was also interviewed by the magazine’s librarian, Jon Michaud upon the publication of the Gibbs anthology.
On a personal note, Mr. Vinciguerra and I met and struck up a lively email correspondence as he was in the latter stages of finishing Cast Of Characters and I was in the midst of writing my Arno biography — my own deadline just months past his. He brought a fabulous high-spiritedness and humor to our conversations as he waded through the trials and highs of finishing his book, all the while generously cheering my effort. We were simultaneously discovering and exploring “golden age” New Yorker history, and having a heck of good time being in that world together.