"In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night . . . "James White, science fiction author and fan, passed away yesterday in Northern Ireland. He wrote some extremely fine sf, most famously the "Sector General" novels set in a space hospital. Last year I enthused in these pages about The Galactic Gourmet. I can't claim to have known James at all, really, although we met. What I remember is his outstanding fanzine writing, particularly in Slant which he co-edited with Walt Willis. Walt himself is now in hospital and is very ill with the latter stages of Alzheimer's. The end of an era, the passing of 50's Irish fandom and their English counterparts, grieves me to no small degree. It's been hard to say goodbye to Vincent, Chuck, and now James all inside of a year. When Walter goes, an influential and beloved chapter of fan history will be closed forever, living on only in memory and in text.
Luckily, they leave a fine legacy in both. Goodbye, James.
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