Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, "an intrepid traveler, a heroic soldier and a writer with a unique prose style," died last Friday. He was 96.
The Guardian noted that "among his casual attainments, he climbed a peak in the Andes with the mountaineer Robin Fedden and the Duke of Devonshire (who beat the others to the top), and he swam the Hellespont, where he encountered a Russian submarine. In the 1980s he underwent treatment for cancer, which proved successful. Yet his life was distinctly bookish and scholarly: he was a discoverer of obscure and new writers, he translated poetry, and was at some deep level essentially a poet."
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Jim Matthews, who worked for many years at wholesaler Booksource in St. Louis, Mo., died June 5 of lung disease and pneumonia. He was 83.
St. Louis Today said Matthews was "legendary among bookstore operators for his knowledge of books and authors and was known as the dean of St. Louis booksellers.... He was a master at introducing them to books they knew nothing about and authors of whom they had never heard. He knew which books would sell and at which stores."
His former colleague Richard Buthod said, "He would read a book and know exactly who to sell it to."