It is with tremendous sadness that we report that Mark Royden Winchell died on Thursday. Mark had fought a two-year battle against cancer, and for the last month of his life was in an intensive-care unit fighting pneumonia. Please pray for his wife Donna and their family.
Mark taught English at Clemson University, where he directed and, I believe, founded the program in the Great Works of Western Civilization. He was a distinguished, prolific, subtle, and courageous literary critic. His biographies of Donald Davidson and Cleanth Brooks are and will remain definitive. He also wrote books on Leslie Fiedler, neoconservative criticism, and of course the book that ISI released in April,
God, Man, and Hollywood. The latter title was his first book-length foray into film criticism, and Ron Maxwell (the director of
Gettysburg and
Gods and Generals), among others, has lavished praise upon it. I'm thankful that Mark had a chance to see the book in print before he passed away.
Just a few months ago, in December, Mark had also put the finishing touches on a collection of essays that ISI Books will also publish. Tentatively titled
The Cause of Us All, it includes Mark's essays on Robert Frost, M. E. Bradford, Martin Luther King, and others. We will be be proud to publish it, and are extraordinarily grateful for our association with Mark over the years. We wish that that association had been much, much longer. May he rest in peace.
If anyone comes across remembrances or obituaries of Mark over the next few days, I would be grateful if you would post links to them below.
JB
