He would flush and sort of roll his eyes in this you must be joking way. When students like me - or even faculty members - fawned all over him or gushed about his books, the rumpled Hillerman was genuinely embarassed by the fuss. From that point forward, Hillerman was playing with the big boys. That all changed with Skinwalkers, his first true commercial success. When I first became acquainted with him, he had just published Skinwalkers and was already hard at work on A Thief of Time.Īt that time, Hillerman had been writing for more than 15 years - his first book was 1970’s The Blessing Way, and he had won the Edgar for his 1973 book Dance Hall of the Dead - but he was still more of an underground hit, respected by writers as a hard working but unduly unappreciated master of the craft. But I had the pleasure of talking with him several times and, briefly, I attended a writing class he taught at the UNM Honors Department. I was only slightly acquainted with Tony Hillerman - I began attending the University of New Mexico, and working at UNM’s newspaper, the Daily Lobo, the year after he all but officially stepped away from the journalism department to dedicate himself full-time to writing. I was saddened this morning to learn that mystery novelist - and fellow New Mexican and University of New Mexico Lobo - Tony Hillerman died of pulmonary failure this past Sunday at age 83.
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