I received the following information from Bill Pronzini, and I'm posting it with his permission.
Just received the sad news that Jon Tuska has died [on January 18] in Portland, OR at age 73. Author of numerous books on Hollywood film and the western fiction genre; co-founder of the Golden West Literary Agency and editor for many years of Five Star Press's line of western novels. Don't know if you had any dealings with him, but I sold him several collections of my western stories and edited a number of other single-author collections for him and his wife, Vicki Piekarski. WWA's best short fiction Spur Award that Marcia and I received in 2008 was for a novella he commissioned and published.
8 comments:
I'm sorry to hear this. I always enjoyed his editorial comments in the collections that he edited. He was GOH at a Pulpcon several years ago and I sold him 10 or 11 WESTERN STORY MAGAZINES with L. Ron Hubbard stories. His big book on western authors is an excellent encyclopedia.
Sorry to read about this. He hosted a television series that aired in Madison and Milwaukee in the 70s (I think) called They Went That'a Way. Each episode featured a different star like William S. Hart, Tom Mix, etc. Always loved that show. I believe he also edited a film mag called Views and Reviews or something along those lines.
I'm sorry as well. I had many enjoyable phone conversations with him back in the Nineties. We disagreed on a few things regarding pulp history, but Western pulp fans owe him a huge debt of gratitude for all the great work he made available again. He leaves a wonderful body of work behind. Rest in peace.
I have a couple of his movie books here on my shelves.
I talked with him several times at conventions, in the airport once (we both waited for a flight to L.A.) and once here in town. Really, really nice guy, soft spoken, good sense of humor. He'll be missed.
I remember the TV series that he hosted. It was before video tapes, so it must have been in the 1970's. It was several parts and the PBS channels ran it. The subject was silent western films; I don't believe he showed any sound movie clips but I might be wrong. It evidently doesn't exist anymore because I've tried to find copies to buy on dvd. Every time I google THEY WENT THATAWAY, I get the James Horowitz book which is a great book on the old time western stars. I'd pay a lot to get a copy of Jon Tuska's TV series.
One of his greatest books was THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FRONTIER AND WESTERN FICTION. It had many entries on obscure western authors that wrote for the pulps. Many of us wanted him to do a second edition and he explained why there would not be such a book at http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=520
Basically it appears he just didn't have the time to properly bring the book up to date.
Was sorry to learn of his passing. Though we knew him, and I think corresponded during our ECHOES period, we were never really close. It's always sad to lose another light in our world.
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