Some men's deaths diminish us all

John Donne wrote, as we know:

Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.

That may be true but some men's deaths diminish us all. Such a man was Jacques Barzun, cultural historian, musicologist, many other things and, above all, one of the great historians of the detective story, whose death  at the astonishing age of 104 has just been announced. But then he continued to write and publish into his nineties and continued to annoy and delight people in equal measure.

I was going to write about his work on the detective story but find that it has been done by The Passing Tramp. The posting is very well worth reading.

RIP Jacques Barzun 1907 - 2012. We shall not look upon his like again.