Throughout the time we spent together we had plenty
of creative differences. He was the author and I was the editor and,
even when I completely disagreed with his approach I learned to respect
him as a writer. His writing in F/V Black Sheep was
alternately tender and intense, hilarious and frightening. I still
think Little League is masterful and that Garand Afternoon is
one of the strongest pieces of writing I have ever read anywhere by
anyone.
I simply do not have words to say how bereft I feel.
We spent hundreds of hours together. We talked about writing and
about books and about life and about our respective dreams for all
the books we intended to write after our current books. He was dearer
to me than I have words to say. Now he has left the world and there
is nothing more to be said.
His mother called me this morning and gave me the
news. She said she wanted me to know because she knew that I loved
him.
So, Mark, I hope you are on the water somewhere under
a sunny sky with a light swell in the ocean and traps full of lobsters.
I hope you will remember all that we shared and I hope that you will
continue to see your world through your poet’s eyes. And I
will close this with the words from your book that I loved the most
because they were the most like you: My house sits on
a tidal marsh behind Good Harbor Beach. I work on my lobster traps
there and watch hawks soar.
Fare thee well, dear Mark.
-Reprinted
from Parlez-Moi Blog, May 23, 2008 |
With Deepest Sorrow
Mark S. Williams
January 30, 1952 - May 22, 2008
It is with deepest sorrow that I post here that
my dear friend and fellow writer Mark S. Williams, author of the memoir F/V
Black Sheep passed away early this morning. Mark was 56 years
old and had been a Gloucester fisherman most of his adult life.
I met Mark in May of 2004 when he hired me to edit
the manuscript for his collection of stories about his life as a
lobsterman. For three years we worked on that book, spending time
together nearly every day and, during that time, we became quite
close. I loved Mark dearly. He could be exasperating and annoying
and obnoxious and hard to get along with but he was also one of the
sweetest and most sensitive people I ever knew. He loved Gloucester
and he loved writing about Gloucester. He was keenly attuned to nature
and could tell you the name of every bird and fish and creature that
he saw.
When his book F/V Black Sheep was
published in June 2006 he was happier than I could ever imagine anyone
being. He was so proud of that book that he would drive around Gloucester
giving away copies of it and telling people, “Read it. If you
like it you can pay me for it.” Most people did. He loved to
call me and tell me about people stopping him in the street to tell
him how much they enjoyed his stories.
Articles by Mark S. Williams on the
Internet:
Tribute
to Lobsterman John Symonds
Tribute
to his Father, Ted Williams
Tribute
to Andre Dubus III on LiteraryGloucester
Tribute
to his Friend Joe Paynotta
|
