I just heard about Bill's death over on SFFNet.
I am so sorry! His biography of Heinlein was superb. I had hoped to buy him a drink when we met at a Con. I guess it won't happen now.
https://heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/ |
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| Bill Patterson https://heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1545 |
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| Author: | RobWright [ Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:08 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Bill Patterson |
| Author: | sakeneko [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 5:36 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
I just heard about Bill's death over on SFFNet. I am so sorry! His biography of Heinlein was superb. I had hoped to buy him a drink when we met at a Con. I guess it won't happen now.
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| Author: | DanHenderson [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:53 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
This is such a shock! Would anyone here be willing to tell us what happened?? Bill was directly responsible for my most profound personal experiences of Heinlein. He got me access to the archives of Heinlein's papers at UC Santa Cruz before they were locked away, and I got to sit at Heinlein's desk with his typewriter. He also took me to 115 Echo St. in Santa Cruz, the house the Heinleins lived in while they were building Bonny Dune, and it happened to be for sale with an open house going on, so I got to walk through it. Can anyone tell us what's going to happen with the second volume of the biography? I don't imagine anyone else will pick up publication of the Heinlein Journal, which is a shame. |
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| Author: | DavidWrightSr [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:52 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
| Author: | JackKelly [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 10:07 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
| Author: | PeterScott [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
I'm not ignoring this thread; it'll take me a while to compose myself, that's all. |
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| Author: | RobertPearson [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 1:37 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
Alas, I never met him personally, but Bill was kind enough to engage me at length on some Heinlein topics through Facebook private messages. His intellect and sense of humor shone through even this limited channel, and he'll be sadly missed. I'm just happy he will have a lasting legacy through the volumes of the biography...authors with published books have a certain immortality that others cannot. I'd like to think that he's talking to Heinlein right now and clearing up a few interesting points. |
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| Author: | JusTin [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 5:54 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
Bill will be missed. I didn't know him well, but enjoyed meeting him at the Centennial and working with him slightly over the internet with THS matters. My heart goes out to family and you friends that did know him well. |
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| Author: | Blackhawk [ Thu Apr 24, 2014 7:45 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
I am saddened to hear of Bill's death. I knew him only through his work but that is enough that I will miss him. |
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| Author: | beamjockey [ Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:12 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
I valued Bill Patterson's friendship-- though we didn't know one another well-- and was grateful for the warm encouragement he gave to my own research. In addition, he was always generous in sharing his hard-earned knowledge. . Here's video and audio of . |
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| Author: | PeterScott [ Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:11 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
I first met Bill in the late '90s when he was on a Heinlein panel at a LosCon. I subscribed to the Journal on the spot and a few more meetings later, joined the Society. We continued to meet at cons for a few years until I conceived the idea of the Centennial in 2001, after which we met - virtually - at board meetings as well. Bill was a raconteur, an intellectual, a scholar, and yes, a gentleman in demeanor, comportment, dress, and eloquence. He was larger than life, a character among characters. What he did for elevating the stature of Heinlein studies was titanic and groundbreaking. He shouldered a completely full schedule of sessions at the Centennial with grace and aplomb; he was in his element. He belonged to a world of chivalry and dignity that has largely vanished, and which is all but evaporated with his passing. A matter of days before his death he finished the second and final volume of the biography, a work unlike any other and destined to become a landmark standard in the narrative of science fiction that others can only hope of matching. His final posting on Facebook, hours before his death: "Reaching some kind of transition -- too little o2 in brain to function" almost suggests the kind of conscious release that you would expect of an awakened Heinlein Hero. Oh Bill, why did you have to leave so soon. I hope you're getting your remaining biographical questions answered in person now. |
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| Author: | JamesGifford [ Sat Apr 26, 2014 1:52 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
I've honestly lost track of when I first encountered Bill - it would have been online, probably in AFH and by no later than about 1995 or 6. I think I first met him in person at ChiCon in 2000, but I seem to recall another meeting in California before then. We didn't live too far apart when he was in SF/Santa Rosa and I recall a couple of visits down there that might be earlier than 2000. Bill stayed with us a couple of times, cooking an outstanding meal each time, and we found a way to put him on our company payroll for about three years, which gave him full medical coverage he could not then otherwise afford. I like to think that at one time I was the #1 living expert on Heinlein and his works, and that may have been true in the short time between my getting serious about the subject and the renewal of Heinlein studies that Bill both fostered and rode into his prominent roles with Virginia Heinlein, the Trust and the UCSC Archives. It was only with pleasure that I watched Bill pass my level, headed for the stratosphere, followed by a few others including Robert James. I suppose I still have some place on the slope, but there's no question that Bill reached a pinnacle of expertise on Heinlein's life, work and milieu that will never be equaled. Others may come along - and RJ is already here - but no one again will have the access to now-deceased people and a personal memory of events during Heinlein's later life. The bar he set will forever remain an unattainable goal for successors. Most of us know the story of the biography - that for one reason and another, it was cut and cut and shrunk and shrunk until it might be a commercially viable property, but it's nowhere near Bill's original vision. The working assembly of material was almost six million words. The first complete draft was nearly one million. The first reasonable cut was well over 600,000 words. The Tor edition, both volumes, is less than half that and cut according to... rather arbitrary editorial standards. The other versions exist; the megaword version, with some editorial polish, could someday still see print (or, more likely e-print, which Bill hated). I last saw Bill when we passed through LA in 2009. Our professional association, which led through the creation and publication of my book and then his and Andy Thornton's, and then through the Centennial, and then through the Nexus and into the recovery of the Heinlein Society, tapered off for a couple of reasons. One was that I moved on from Heinlein to other topics and had less and less interest in the tiny increments of change - I was a pick and shovel and bulldozer man, and the field now (properly) belongs to the camels-hair brush and tweezer folks. The other is that Bill, who could be one of the most phenomenally irritating people I've ever known, sparked a rather vicious outburst from me that, while perhaps true in its facts, was untrue to what was then a 15-year friendship and professional association. We got over it and had a civil, even friendly relationship afterwards, but the division was always there and I never found a way to apologize appropriately. Perhaps if we'd met again - I was lucky enough to get a chance to apologize in person and in public to Bob Eggleton, and would have done so with Bill had the chance come along. Anyone who dealt with Bill for very long learned just how stubborn, inflexible, demanding and irritating he could be... but it was those qualities coupled with a gifted and insightful mind that brought us everything from the Heinlein Society to the million or so words of the Heinlein Journal to MARTIAN to the biography (with more to come), and a good part of the shape of the 2007 Centennial event. Maybe there are no truly great men without some touch of abrasiveness and even madness - and before anyone jumps on me, I'm not sure the same is true about great women. In any case, at the end of the run, the times I wanted to shriek at the ceiling and told mutual colleagues, "If I ever get involved in another project with him, kill me," and ended up holding some bag Bill managed to deftly leave in my hands... those times are absolutely dwarfed by the times of discovery, of putting together the puzzle that is Robert Heinlein, of arguing the most esoteric and subtle points of the man's life and work, and just enjoying the hell out of the game. And that's how I will remember Bill Patterson, once this emotional cloud settles and I can lay so much of it to rest once and for all, never to be disturbed by new memories - good or bad. He was a scholar of the first water, on a difficult and obscure subject that far too few of us prize, and he persisted through financial and medical hardship to forge a multi-faceted legacy that is irretrievably wedded to that of the man we all came together to admire. I am proud to have known him; I am prouder still to have worked alongside him in this field; I will miss him greatly. |
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| Author: | PeterScott [ Sat Apr 26, 2014 7:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
You raise a very good point that I have often wondered about with respect to other geniuses. I don't know that anyone else would have wanted to write six million words about a man who is not, let's face it, a household name today. I don't know that anyone else would have wanted to perform research so painstaking it forced a life of monastic frugality. It's churlish and ungrateful, perhaps, to speculate that this could not have been achieved by anyone who didn't have a cog loose somewhere in their psyche, but it does put Bill in the very good company of various legendary tortured artists... which is the only point I was trying to make: That often, exceptionally great works have been created by people who were known to have had inner demons... and perhaps the demons are required. Bill drove me nuts on many occasions also... but a conversation with him could be such a joyous exploration, as he was a true polymath and bon vivant. |
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| Author: | Dominic [ Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:03 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
Logged in today for the first time in weeks, perhaps months; partly to see how Bill was going with publication of volume 2 of the Biography. I couldn't have hoped for a less pleasant surprise. I was not acquainted with him except through these pages, volume 1 of the bio, and his own website. I offer my condolences to his family and friends, and to those of you here who knew him. With you I mourn the passing of not just one of our small community, but one of its leading lights. |
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| Author: | DanHenderson [ Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:43 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
Would someone be willing to share with us some medical information about what might have done him in? He mentioned too little O2 in his Facebook post; was it COPD? Does anyone know whether he tried to get insurance through the California version of Obamacare? I gathered he had none leading up to his death. Any information on a memorial service or funeral? |
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| Author: | RobertPearson [ Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:53 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
I saw a previous post from Bill that he had tremendous pain for a week from a hiatal hernia. I believe one of his family wrote "heart attack" on his Facebook page. |
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| Author: | sakeneko [ Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
"Heart attack" is what one of Patterson's relatives told a friend of mine who knows the family. Whether that was what the doctor said, let alone what really happened, I have no idea. |
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| Author: | BillMullins [ Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
| Author: | BillMullins [ Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
And has it been mentioned here that recently passed? I didn't know until a few minutes ago. |
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| Author: | beamjockey [ Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:17 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
| Author: | BillMullins [ Mon May 05, 2014 8:33 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
Another obituary/remembrance: And I just noticed that Google Books has the up -- it is partially browseable, so you can read short passages of it. Likewise take advantage of Amazon's "Look Inside" feature. You can't read the whole thing online, but enough to whet your appetite. |
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| Author: | beamjockey [ Mon May 05, 2014 9:25 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
| Author: | BillMullins [ Mon May 05, 2014 5:11 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bill Patterson |
Well how about that. When I got my copy of Vol 1, the first thing I did was check for my name. But I hadn't done so with either of these digital editions. I made some modest contributions to Jeff Prucher's Brave New Words, a dictionary of SF terms that took the 2008 Hugo for Best Related. So when Vol 1 came out, I just knew that I'd be able to accept (in my mind) a second "micro-Hugo". I was kinda irritated at Lynne Thomas, who ended up winning the Best Related Hugo in 2011 (for Chicks Dig Time Lords) instead of Bill, at least until she did me an awesome favor on some conjuring research I was doing (after which I realized it was the same Lynne Thomas -- small world!). Odd that the Google Books version doesn't get a search hit for "Mullins" -- I was able to read one of the relevant pages online, and one would presume that they are working from a digital version of the book that isn't subject to the vagaries of OCR. I do see "Higgins" when I search, though. |
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