I couldn’t believe it or, to be more precise, I didn’t want to believe it when I read yesterday, through a social media post, that John Grant had passed away. Today I woke thinking that soon it was going to be belied, but sadly that has not happened.
I’ll miss him enormously. I had not the opportunity to meet him personally, but I always used to read his blog posts and, I like to think, he also used to read mine. Occasionally he used to make me some comments and I particularly very much liked his sense of humour.
Even though I knew him as John Grant his name was Paul Barnett, an award-winning writer and editor, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, but a long-term inmate of New Jersey, USA.
After the release of A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: The Essential Reference Guide John created the website Noirish, which acts as an “annex” to the encyclopaedia, containing longer, chattier and less formal notes on movies that, although possessing some noir connection, for one reason or another didn’t make it into the printed book.
As John Grant he has received two Hugo Awards, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a number of other international literary awards. Under his real name, Paul Barnett, he has written a few books (like the space operas Strider’s Galaxy and Strider’s Universe) and for a number of years ran the world-famous fantasy-artbook imprint Paper Tiger, for this work earning a Chesley Award and a nomination for the World Fantasy Award.
Read more here.
So long dear friend!
A Crime is Afoot 
He was a real friend to the genre, and such an informed blogger. He will be greatly missed….
Damn and blast it. He’d not been well for the last couple of years. This is such sad news. Not bloody fair.
Thank you for sharing this sad news. I always appreciated when John would comment and share his wisdom and insight and seeing the wonderful genre films he highlighted. As Margot says, he will be greatly missed!
Oh, my god, Jose, I had no idea! This is a shock. His most recent post on film shorts arrived only last night. I feel like I talked to John nearly every day about some book or film. We will all miss him terribly.
Thanks for sharing this. I am sad to hear this and he will be missed in many ways.
Oh, my goodness. What awful news…
I’ve always enjoyed chatting to John about various books and films over the years and will miss him hugely. Such a sad loss to world of film noir…
Sad news for sure.