Adios, Gary Reilly

12 Comments

  1. Mark Stevens
    Mark Stevens April 2, 2012 at 4:05 pm .

    By the way — to all those on this thread — please mark Tuesday, June 5 2012 on your calendars and come to The Tattered Cover in LoDo for the launch of "The Asphalt Warrior," the first of Gary's 10 comic novels about Murph, the Denver taxi driver. It's being published by Running Meter Press in collaboration with Big Earth Publishing. Bring your friends, tell the world. Murph

  2. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison April 12, 2011 at 6:06 pm .

    Thanks for the kind words, Mark. I hope you and Mike can make something happen with all those fine books! Gary deserves to be remembered that way—as a writer, I mean. What a guy….

  3. Mark Stevens
    Mark Stevens April 11, 2011 at 1:44 pm .

    Very very nice piece! I was priveleged / honored to know Gary for the last several years and he was a tremendous mentor and coach to me. I believe I've read all of Gary's works, at least the ones he told me about. Some 18 books (??) in all. The two Vietnam novels are among the best I've ever read, and I've read quite a few. The Murph comic novels are exquisite. He has two dark

  4. Jon Volkmer
    Jon Volkmer March 17, 2011 at 11:00 pm .

    The title of the film, obviously, was "Mail Order Worm"

  5. Jon Volkmer
    Jon Volkmer March 17, 2011 at 10:58 pm .

    I met Gary in Joe Nigg&#39;s writing class. He was a friend and mentor through many long drinking nights at My Brother&#39;s Bar. One small anecdote: Short film Gary was always going to make: &quot;Mail Order Word&quot;. Opening shot on mail box on post. Man comes, opens mail box. It&#39;s full of dirt. He reaches in. Pulls out worm. The End. For my epitaph, I&#39;ll lean on A.E. Housman:<br /

  6. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison March 17, 2011 at 10:56 pm .

    Oooh. Planting a burr under the saddle <i>does</i> work! Great stuff, Joe. He&#39;d love to know we&#39;re telling stories about him….

  7. Joe Nigg
    Joe Nigg March 17, 2011 at 9:54 pm .

    I&#39;d like to add a few Reilly creations to his Spender parody, &quot;Biography Man,&quot; and &quot;Soldier of the Month&quot; novella: <i>Beowulf</i> (an early animated film with clay figures and cocktail swords); <i>The Cheese Connection</i> (since I never read it, I don&#39;t know if this is the parody of <i>Conan the Barbarian</i> that he sometimes talked about); <i>Worst Weekend</i> (a

  8. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison March 16, 2011 at 8:13 pm .

    &quot;Ubiquitous wit,&quot; indeed. Gary sure knew his way around a quip….<br /><br />Great news about the collection, too. Nigg tells me nothing! But now I can just follow your Web site and keep up with the further adventures of Larry….

  9. Larry Dunning
    Larry Dunning March 16, 2011 at 6:32 pm .

    Joe,<br />On another subject, as you can see I have my own website now (welcome, Larry, to the 20th century). As the other Joe may have told you, a book of my short stories will be published this fall, for which I am truly grateful. For some odd reason I don&#39;t seem to be getting any younger. Title of the book is &quot;Rondo and Fugue for Two Pianos.&quot; Look for it in your favorite

  10. Larry Dunning
    Larry Dunning March 16, 2011 at 6:24 pm .

    For more years than I like to think about I&#39;ve had on a wall of my writing room a photograph that Gary took at a party of writers at Joe Nigg&#39;s apartment one night. The photo happens to be of me and Kent Nelson. Beneath the photo I&#39;ve hung a separate piece of paper on which Gary printed the same photo, smaller, and below that his photo of Joe, smiling, drinking, with thought bubbles

  11. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison March 16, 2011 at 3:44 pm .

    I&#39;m comforted by the career of John Kennedy Toole in this respect, Conrad: even his early suicide didn&#39;t keep his <i>Confederacy of Dunces</i> from finding (through the efforts of his indefatigable mother) a publisher, an audience, a Pulitzer Prize—and 31 continuous years of being in print. But the pain and pathos of his situation isn&#39;t really diminished by that, is it…

  12. Conrad DiDiodato
    Conrad DiDiodato March 16, 2011 at 3:14 pm .

    Joseph,<br /><br />my condolences to you on loss of your friend. I see here a moving testimonial to the value of friendship and lament for unappreciated (often disprized) literary talent. This is the tragedy few of us ever like to admit: the terrible uncertainties, discouragements and self-loathings writers are subject to. And the very real likelihood that many of us may spend an entire lifetime

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