Gloria Naylor, whose debut novel, The Women of Brewster Place, "became a bestseller, a National Book Award winner and a TV miniseries released through Oprah Winfrey's production company," died September 28, the Associated Press reported. She was 66. Naylor's other books include Linden Hills, Mama Day and The Men of Brewster Place.
Author Bernice McFadden told Ebony magazine that Naylor "gave me permission to write my truth. To rejoice, scream, cry and pray on the page. To embrace my Blackness--my womanhood and to hold both in high esteem and guard it with my life."
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Karl Dietrich Bracher, "a World War II veteran of the German army who argued as a historian that the German people had to take responsibility for the rise of Nazism because of their embrace of Hitler and his racist agenda," died September 19, the New York Times reported. He was 94. Bracher's works include The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure and Effects of National Socialism; and The Age of Ideologies: A History of Political Thought in the Twentieth Century.