Straka Obituary Transcription from Jen Heyward's Tumblr Blog

V. M. Straka
The writer V. M. Straka died last Wednesday in Havana Cuba according to authorities.  A prolific and controversial novelist, he published eighteen novels, most notably Miracle at Braxenholm (1911), The Santana March (1922), and Wineblood's Mine (1939), and most infamously Washington & Greene, which was banned in the United States and the United Kingdom shortly after publication in 1929 because of its seditious themes and its slanderous attacks on public figures.

It is almost universally agreed that "V. M. Straka" was a pseudonym, and no verifiable facts about the writer's life have ever come to light.  (Theories about his identity have abounded for decades.  Just last month, the biographer of the late Canadian adventurer C. F. J. Wallingford claimed that his subject led a double life as the gadfly novelist.)  Straka shunned all contact with the public; he gave no interviews or lectures, and appears to have had no friendships or even contact with others in his profession.  His longtime publisher, Karst & Son, has never provided any biographical details.

Most critics believe that Straka's best-known books were successful more their leftist outrages than for their literary quality.  Proof of this can be found in his final two books - the impenetrable Coriolis and the saccharine Winged Shoes of Emido[sic]Alves in which the writer largely dispensed with his dogmatic political stances and attempted to win readers with more conventionally pleasing themes.  Both with ignominious failures, critically and comercially[sic], and it was well understood that Straka's most successful and most interesting years were behind him.

Police in Havana say Straka was the victim of a violent attack in the hotel room in which he was staying.  Fittingly, he had registered there under a pseudonym.

It is, of course, impossible to discuss what sort of man Straka was without knowing which man Straka was.  Still, a writer's work is a likely indicator of his temperament and tendencies; in Straka's case, one might reasonably conclude that he was a thoroughly disagreeable, socially inept, inconsiderate of anyone's needs but his own, strident in his poorly-informed opinions, and given to unhealthy habits and associations - in short, the sort of man whose demise will grieve only the handful of readers who remain interested in consuming his stories - not anyone whose life had in any way intersected with his.

It is unknown whether Straka left a family or a literary executor.  Karst & Son has issued any comments on the death.

(photo of obit can be found here.)

The Monkey's Marginalia, No. 1

I have decided to collect random notes and internet wanderings that are too small for their own blog posts (at least for now) into fewer, larger blog posts. (edit, I suspect that most of these may be wagtails, but they are fun, too!)


1.  On page vii, Eric left a penciled note that Caldeira may have been schizophrenic as per "Bolton (1957)."

Bolton may refer to:

• Herbert Eugene Bolton, American historian who originated the Bolton Theory in which the United States cannot be studied without considering its relationships to its neighbors. He served as chair of the history department at University of California, Berkeley for 22 years.  Despite his death in 1953, his work appeared in books published in 1957. 
• Walter James Bolton was executed in 1957 for poisoning his wife.  He was the last man executed by the New Zealand penal system.  He was 68 years old. 
• Bolton Wanderers, UK football team during the 1957/1958 season.

2.  Eotvos appears in several places (Eotvos wheel & Eotvos Syndrome).   

Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény was a physicist known for his experimental work with gravity.  He worked at the University of Budapest until the end of his life.  The University of Budapest was renamed the Eotvos Lorand University.  His father, Jozsef, was poet, writer and politican. 

3.  Defenestration or the act of being thrown out of an open window is reoccurring event and mentioned a few times as being the mode of death for some of Straka's peers. 

4.  Prague, where it may have all begun, actually has two events in history known as First and Second Defenestration of Prague.  You can read about the events on wikipedia here. 

5. Coriolis is the name of one Straka's books.  It is also the name of the mathematician and mechanical engineer who first described the Coriolis Effect.  

6.  Footnote 2, Chapter 1 (page 8) talks about the fictional prize the Prix Bouchard and Straka's refusal of the prize in 1912 via monkey.  I surprised that no one has mentioned Alfred Nobel, whose primary business was in munitions.  Two companies still bear his name, Akzo Nobel and Dynamit Nobel.  In 1912, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Gerhart Hauptmann (whose novel Atlantis was published in 1912 and later made into a silent film in 1913). 

Only one person ever refused the prize, Jean-Paul Sartre.  Sartre never accepted any official prize or honor.  

7.  Eric noted in pencil about the celebration of the first street lights in Miracle at Braxenholm.  In Edison, New Jersey, Christie Street was the world's first street to be lit with incandescent lights on New Year's Eve, 1879. 

References: 

Hubert Eugene Bolton:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Eugene_Bolton

Walter James Bolton: 

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/the-death-penalty/the-last-execution

Bolton Wanderers: 

http://stats.football.co.uk/results_fixtures/1957_1958/bolton_wanderers/index.shtml

Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lor%C3%A1nd_E%C3%B6tv%C3%B6s

Gustave Coriolos: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard-Gustave_Coriolis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_Effect

Alfred Nobel: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates

Gerhart Hauptman: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhart_Hauptmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_(1913_film)

Jean-Paul Sartre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre

Thomas Edison

http://www.menloparkmuseum.org/thomas-edison-and-menlo-park

http://dailykenn.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-31-1879-edison-demonstrates.html

(7/31/14 edited for grammar and tags added)