Correction: The New Yorker published 116 stories by author Mavis Gallant, who died Tuesday. An Associated Press obituary of her erroneously reported the number of stories the magazine published.
Guitarist for new-wave band Devo, 61
NEW YORK - Bob Casale, the guitarist for Devo, best known for the 1980 hit “Whip It,” has died of heart failure, his brother and band member Gerald Casale said Tuesday. He was 61.
Devo founding member Gerald Casale said in a statement that his younger brother’s death Monday was “sudden” and “a total shock.”
“As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning,” Gerald Casale said. “He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got.”
No further details on his death were provided.
The Ohio-based Devo introduced itself to the world in 1977 by making a frenetic version of the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” The new wave band released its Brian Eno-produced debut, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, in 1978 and reached platinum status with 1980’s Freedom of Choice, which featured “Whip It.”
Gerald Casale formed Devo with lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh. Alan Myers, the group’s drummer, died last year at age 58 after a battle with cancer.
Devo is short for devolution, the idea that man was regressing into an earlier state.
Esteemed Canadian short-story writer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO - Mavis Gallant, the Montreal-born writer who carved out an international reputation as a master short-story author while living in Paris for decades, has died at age 91, her publisher Random House of Canada confirmed Tuesday.
The bilingual Quebecois started out as a journalist and went on to publish more than 100 short stories, many of them in the New Yorker magazine and in collections such as The Other Paris, Across the Bridge and In Transit. She also wrote two novels; Green Water, Green Sky and A Fairly Good Time; as well as the play What is to be Done?
Gallant received several high-profile honors in Canada, including a Companion of the Order of Canada and a Governor General’s Literary Award for her story collection, Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories.
Although at least 120 of her stories appeared in The New Yorker, her following in the United States remained small.
American author Joyce Carol Oates compared Gallant to another Canadian short-story master, Alice Munro, who captured the 2013 Nobel Prize for literature.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 02/19/2014