Robert S. McNamara, the former secretary of defense who was vilified for the Vietnam war, and in his later years devoted his time to helping the poor nations has died at age 93. Read more on Robert McNamara’s life and death below.

The former secretary of defense for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam-Era has died at the age of 93.

McNamara’s wife, Diana, confirmed that her husband had died at 5:30 a.m. at his home. She revealed McNamara had been in bad health for quite some time.

Robert McNamara has always been known for the Vietnam War,which had even been referred to as  “McNamara’s war.

Robert McNamara was recruited to run the Pentagon by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. McNamara remained for seven years, which is longer than anyone since the job started in 1947.

McNamara’s association with Vietnam was truly personal. McNamara’s own son, a student at Stanford University, protested the war as his dead headed the war.

It all became too much for McNamara, and he left the Pentagon on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He then went on to be president of the World Bank and devoted his energy to the belief that if we could improve life in the rural communities in poor countries that it was a better path than building up weapons and armies.

McNamara was a very private person but finally opened up in the early 90’s. He told Time magazine in 1991 that he did not think the bombing of North Vietnam would work but he went along with it “because we had to try to prove it would not work, number one, and (because) other people thought it would work.”

In 1993 McNamara decided to write his memoirs because some of the lessons of Vietnam were applicable to the post-Cold War period “odd as though it may seem.”

“In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam” came out and McNamara revealed that by 1967 he had deep misgivings about Vietnam, and how by then he had lost faith in America’s capacity to prevail over a guerrilla insurgency that had driven the French from the same jungled countryside.

Even with those doubts, he acted confident in public that the firepower the U.S. had would make the Communists make peace. In that time period, the number of U.S. soldiers that were dead, missing and wounded surged from 7,466 to over 100,000.

“We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of our country. But we were wrong. We were terribly wrong,” McNamara, then 78, told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the book’s release.

McNamara talked about his theories on war in the 2003 documentary “The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara.” With the U.S. in the first year of the war in Iraq, it became a popular and timely art-house attraction and won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

Our condolences to Robert McNamara’s friends and family.

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Texas born playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote died Wednesday in Hartford, Conn., where he was working a production of one of his scripts. Foote was 92. Read more about Horton Foote’s life and death below.

Horton Foote wrote for stage, film or television in a career that lasted nearly 70 years. Two of Horton Foote’s most well-known screenplays were “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Tender Mercies”. He won Academy Awards for both screenplays.

Horton Foote won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for  “The Young Man from Atlanta.”  Foote’s rewritten “Dividing the Estate” was a big hit Broadway last fall.

“He was a great gentleman, with a lot of insight that was very generous to other human beings,” Jac Alder, who produced two of Foote’s plays at Dallas’ Theatre Three, said on Wednesday. “I am always so amazed at how on the surface these plays seem almost nondramatic, not threateningly deep. But when they’re performed they connect on such a deep level. Of course he especially speaks to us here in Texas.”

From the Dallas Morning News:

Most of Foote’s plays were set in a fictional town based on Wharton, Texas, where he was born Albert Horton Foote, Jr. on March 14, 1915. Foote’s memoir, Farewell: A Memoir of a Texas Childhood, tells the story of his early years. After studying acting briefly in Dallas at age 16, he went on to California’s Pasadena Playhouse, where his teachers and fellow students couldn’t understand his thick Texas accent.

“I took my lunch money and studied with this woman who taught me the basics of phonetics,” Foote told The Dallas Morning News in 1999. “And so I went back home that summer, and I learned later that my brother was charging his friends 10 cents to hear me talk.”

Choreographer Agnes DeMille encouraged the budding actor to try his hand at writing, and his first play went onstage in 1940. Soon he proved the master of the realistic play. Generally his scripts dealt with ordinary people in recognizable, if stressful, family situations. The dialogue was always spare and elegant, but frequently the plot went in a slightly quirky direction that kept audiences guessing. His nine-play cycle “Orphans’ Home” epitomized his style — and detailed the lives of several generations in a Texas family.

Baylor University now hosts an annual theater festival named for the playwright, and Contemporary Theatre of Dallas plans to produce “The Trip to Bountiful” next season.

Foote was married to Lillian Vallish Foote from 1945 to her death in 1992. They had four children, most of whom were active in the theater. Daughter Hallie Foote starred in “Dividing the Estate” on Broadway and elsewhere.

Thus far there has not been an announcement made regarding funeral arrangements.

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John Updike, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction has died at the age of 76. Read more on writer John Updike’s death below.

John Updike, a long-time resident of Beverly Farms, died of lung cancer at Hospice of the North Shore in Danvers, according to his wife, Martha.

John Updike was a novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet. Updike always strove to produce a book per year. The first was a collection of poems, “The Carpentered Hen” (1958). “My Father’s Tears and Other Stories” is scheduled to be published in June.

“It’s always a push to get up the stairs, to sit down and go to work,” he told Time magazine in 1982. “You’d rather do almost anything, read the paper again, write some letters, play with your old dust jackets, any number of things you’d rather do than tackle that empty page, because what you do on the page is you, your ticket to all the good luck you’ve enjoyed.”

“When I write,” Mr. Updike once noted, “I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.”

Another concern (unto obsession) was sex. Mr. Updike told Time in a 1968 cover story that when his wife read his then-scandalous novel “Couples” (1968) “she felt that she was being smothered in pubic hair.” Adultery looms as large in Mr. Updike’s fiction as paranoia does in Thomas Pynchon’s or hunting and fishing in Ernest Hemingway’s. “Sex is like money,” he once wrote; “only too much is enough.”

John Hoyer Updike was born on March 18, 1932, in Shillington, Pa., which he would recast in his early short stories as Olinger. His parents were Linda Grace (Hoyer) Updike and Wesley Updike. Mr. Updike would lovingly portray his father, who taught junior high school mathematics, as the teacher in his National Book Award-winning novel, “The Centaur” (1963).

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Updike’s mother encouraged her son to write and draw. While acknowledging the effect of her influence, he saw at least two other factors in his becoming a writer.

“I’m sure,” Mr. Updike said in a 1978 Newsday interview, “that my capacity to fantasize and make coherent fantasies, to have the patience to sit down day after day and to whittle a fantasy out of paper, all that relates to being an only child.”

And in “Self-Consciousness” he wrote: “My assets as a novelist I take to be the taste for American life acquired in Shillington, a certain indignation and independence also acquired there, a willingness to suspend judgment, and a cartoonist’s ability to compose within a prescribed space.”

Updike was president of his high school class, editor of the school paper, and won a scholarship to Harvard. Updike excelled at Harvard as well, graduating summa cum laude in English and won a fellowship to study abroad.

While in college, Mr. Updike married Mary Pennington. They divorced in 1977. The couple spent a year living in England, where Mr. Updike was studying at the Ruskin School of Drawing, at Oxford.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Updike leaves behind two sons, David of Cambridge; Michael, of Newburyport; two daughters, Miranda, of Ipswich, and Elizabeth, of Maynard; three stepsons, John Bernhard, of Lexington, Jason Bernhard, of New York City, and Frederic Bernhard, of New Canaan, Conn.; seven grandchildren; and seven step-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Our condolences to friends of family of John Updike.

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Author Michael Crichton has died of cancer Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 66. Read more about Michael Crichton’s death.

Michael Crichton , author of such huge sellers such as “Jurassic Park,” “Timeline” and “The Andromeda Strain,” has died of cancer, his family said.

“Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand,” his family said in a statement.

“While the world knew him as a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us — and entertained us all while doing so — his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes.”

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Michael Crichton wrote many books that became huge Hollywood movies including “Jurassic Park,” “Rising Sun” and “Disclosure.” In fact Crichton himself directed and wrote “The Great Train Robbery” and he co-wrote the script for the blockbuster “Twister.”

In 1994, he created the award-winning TV hospital series “ER.” He’s even had a dinosaur named for him, Crichton’s ankylosaur.

“Michael’s talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of `Jurassic Park,’” said “Jurassic Park” director Steven Spielberg, a friend of Crichton’s for 40 years. “He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth. … Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.”

John Wells, executive producer of “ER” called the author “an extraordinary man. Brilliant, funny, erudite, gracious, exceptionally inquisitive and always thoughtful.

“No lunch with Michael lasted less than three hours and no subject was too prosaic or obscure to attract his interest. Sexual politics, medical and scientific ethics, anthropology, archaeology, economics, astronomy, astrology, quantum physics, and molecular biology were all regular topics of conversation.”

Michael Crichton was a big guy at 6 feet and 9 inches, and ready for battle with the press. In a 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Crichton came with a tape recorder, text books and a pile of graphs and charts as he defended “State of Fear” and his take on global warming.

“I have a lot of trouble with things that don’t seem true to me,” Crichton said at the time, his large, manicured hands gesturing to his graphs. “I’m very uncomfortable just accepting. There’s something in me that wants to pound the table and say, ‘That’s not true.’”

A new novel by Crichton had been tentatively scheduled to come next month, but publisher HarperCollins said the book was postponed indefinitely because of his illness.

Crichton had a rigid work schedule: rising before dawn and writing from about 6 a.m. to around 3 p.m., breaking only for lunch. He enjoyed being one of the few novelists recognized in public, but he also felt limited by fame.

“Of course, the celebrity is nice. But when I go do research, it’s much more difficult now. The kind of freedom I had 10 years ago is gone,” he told the AP. “You have to have good table manners; you can’t have spaghetti hanging out of your mouth at a restaurant.”

Michael Crichton was married five times and had one child. A private funeral is being planned.

Our condolences to Michael Crichton’s family and friends.

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Writer David Foster Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself. Wallace’s body was found by his wife, Karen Green, around 9:30 p.m. when she returned home. David Foster Wallace, author of “Infinite Jest”, written in 1996 is dead at 46. Such a tragedy for such a talented writer such as David Foster Wallace to commit suicide.

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Karen Green, Wallace’s wife, returned home around 9:30 Friday evening, to find her husband, David Foster Wallace, had hanged himself, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department.

David Foster Wallace taught creative writing and English at Pomona College.

Wallace’s very first novel, “The Broom of the System,” gained national attention in 1987 for its ambition and offbeat humor.

Then in 1996, his most well known novel, “Infinite Jest” sky-rocketed Wallace’s reputation as a major American literary figure. The 1,000-plus-page novel was said to be complex and full of dark wit. In fact, Time Magazine named “Infinite Jest” in its issue of the “100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.”

Wallace received a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 1997. His short fiction was published in Esquire, GQ, Harper’s, The New Yorker and the Paris Review.

John Seery, a politics professor at Pomona College who used to work out with Wallace, said in a blog on the Huffington Post that the novelist had not been coming to the gym recently.

“I wrote him a note inquiring into his whereabouts. He wrote back and said my note cheered him. My head swirls right now. He expanded our senses of infinity and oblivion and more, much more,” Mr Seery wrote.

Wallace may have foreshadowed his own death in a 2005 speech to students at Kenyon College that spoke of the struggle with the mind.

“Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master. This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth,” he said.

“It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.

Condolences to David Foster Wallace’s family and friends.

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Jade Goody said that she had smoked cocaine when she was young to shock her mother out of her addiction to drugs. Goody said that method was ineffective. Her mother Jackiey failed to wean off her dependency on drugs.

Goody revealed that her story was recounted in her new book, “Jade: Catch A Falling Star.” Jade said that she felt dirty and disgusting when she was smoking her mother’s stash.

Jackiey Goody was too far addicted to be able to turn back. Jade revealed that her father was also addicted to drugs. Mr. Goody died in 2005 at the age of 42. He died from a suspected overdose of heroin.

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Author JK Rowling wins copyright lawsuit against Harry Potter Lexicon. Read more after the bump!

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Harry Potter author, JK Rowling has won the copyright lawsuit over Harry Potter Lexicon.

JK Rowling has won her claim that a fan violated her copyright with plans to publish an A to Z of Harry Potter. A United States Judge ruled that the unauthorized guide could cause JK Rowling harm as a writer.

JK Rowling had filed the lawsuit against RDR Books, a Michigan-based company, last year over the Harry Potter Lexicon on the grounds that it copied huge parts of her books without adding any original material. Rowling called their project “wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work”.

The author, Steve Vander Ark, who also runs the popular Harry Potter Lexicon website, wanted to publish the lexicon as a Harry Potter guide to be priced at about $24.95.

Judge Robert Patterson found that RDR Books had “failed to establish an affirmative defence of fair use”, and ruled that publication of the lexicon should be halted.

Good news for JK Rowling!

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Tucker Max is a self-professed jerk as well as a comedian, internet personality, and author. Max brags about his bad behavior on TuckerMax.com, which has millions of visitors. Recently Tucker Max made a bet with Gawker.com for $10,000. Read more about Tucker Max below.

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Tucker Max wrote a book called “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell”, which has been a best-seller since 2006. Max is a graduate of Duke University.

Max’s new book called ” Assholes Finish First” was set to come out in Fall of 2008. But Max delayed it to coincide with his movie for “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” which comes out in 2009.

In 2003, Max was ordered by the court to remove a story from his site which was a “tell all” account of his relationship with Katy Johnson, a former Miss Vermont. It was very unflattering to Katy Johnson, but dismissed due to his first amendment rights.

Now Tucker Max is making an enemy of Gawker.com. Max wants to bet $10,000 that his movie for his book will do better than Gawker has estimated.

Here is what Tucker Max had to say about Gawker:

As you may be aware, the media blog Gawker has, for the last three weeks, been posting about me and this movie. Gawker’s schtick is to be hateful and snarky about everything other than themselves, so of course they are comically negative and attacking in their posts about me. For example:

They seem to think it’s controversial that I’m an asshole, they don’t like that I have hot girls in my movie, they apparently hate the FBI, they accuse me of plagiarizing myself, they think my stories are fake and in the SAME post say everyone has similar stories, they believe clearly made up emails (even when my REAL assistant writes to say it’s fake), and they even criticize me for being professional to actresses and loving my dog. And of course, they think my movie sucks, even though their “source” on set tells them that it’s good.

One of Gawker’s writers had this to say about Tucker Max:

I don’t hate you, Tucker. I think you’re a sad piece of nothing that floated along and got caught on some corner of the net when it was still impressed by college boy antics beyond giving them two minutes of Youtube time. I say your stories are fake at THE SAME TIME (wow, Tuck, caps are an effective rhetorical device!) as I say every frat boy tells those stories, because every frat boy’s stories are mostly bullshit. Most frat boys only try to sell their crap to their friends, and not for money. Even Opie and Anthony called bullshit on you. How often do they call bullshit on anyone? You know most of your stories aren’t true, and that’s part of what makes you behave like a caged-in fucking maniac.

The other reason I would hate you if you were worth the passion: You soooo clearly fucking hate and fear women, brah! My God, can you write one word about them where you’re not demeaning—literally—the shit out of them? It’s not okay with most people that a guy who sells 400,000 copies of a bad book he mostly invented should fucking hate women, should keep telling story after story about how he tricked some girl with not enough self-esteem into a place of lesser self-esteem. Why don’t you at least get creative about it?

Because you cannot. You haven’t got the mind. You are, frankly, quite stupid and dark and a misery to contemplate. If you’ve had all the sex you claim to have had—though I don’t think all the shitting and vomiting you describe actually describes any kind of actual sex—why not be philosophical about it? Why not be Henry Miller?

Why not? Because you, Tucker Max, are a thug, an unimaginative punk, and, at heart, a tiny little vapor.

As for your bet. Nick will deal with that.

This Tucker Max does seem like a complete jerk, what do you guys think?

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Jordan, aka Katie Price, has proven that a glamorous model can out-sell a literary writer. Jordan’s books are selling faster than JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books.

Jordan has sold more than 2 million books worth $34 million in 4 years. Her two autobiographies brought in $21.4 million. The latest chapter that related the birth of her daughter, Princess Tiaamii, has earned Jordan $5 million in its first 5 months of sales.

Jordan, 30, has made $6 million from her novels titles, “Angel” and “Crystal.” Her latest book is “Angel Uncovered” and it has become a hardcover bestseller in the UK. Katie Price did not write all her books herself. Her books sell based on the use of her name and association. The book seller and media have compiled the figures and declared that Jordan sold more than JK Rowling within the same time frame.

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Jools Oliver, Jamie Oliver’s wife, has turned to book writing. Her husband, Jamie Oliver, is a celebrity Chef in the UK.

Jools Oliver’s first book was written for children and it is named, “The Adventures of Dotty and Bluebell.” The plot is about 2 little girls who lived with their parents in a country cottage. Jools’ book somewhat resembled the setting of Enid Blyton. She used the favorite traditional backdrop of a simple, bygone era that coddled the characters against the changes and bad aspects in life.

Jools said she could not find enough story books that offered simple, good stories for children so she decided to try her hand at writing them.

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