Not to be confused with the poet Adrienne Rich (1929-2012).

I find it bizarre that I can't find even a tiny, REAL death notice...

She lived in Weston, Massachusetts.

Look closely.

https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/adrienne-richard_id_G3948367782597192984

They DID mix up her husband with her son, however! (I only tracked down the above information by including one or two of her three sons' names.)

I thought she was a Newbery nominee as well, but it seems I was mistaken. (She was, however, nominated for a Phoenix Award - more on that later.)

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=567016438&rlz=1CAJMBU_enUS1076&q=%22adrienne+richard%22+books&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj02ry27rmBAxVKmokEHYSjDrgQ0pQJegQICRAB&biw=1366&bih=644&dpr=1
(book covers)

https://www.nationalbook.org/people/adrienne-richard/
(photo and book cover)

About her novel "Wings" (1974), which was nominated for the National Book Award:

"Her relationship with Radyar, the dashing, sensitive astrologer brings both great joy and tremendous disappointment to the life of a small girl in southern California after World War I."

And, form Goodreads:

"...Just reread it again and loved it as much as ever. Pip is a young girl living in a small Southern California town in the 1920s with her divorced mother and older brother. The mother and her friends are free-thinking Bohemians who practice yoga and include astrologers and modern dancers like Ruth-darling. Pip wants nothing more than to be an aviatrix while her strait-laced father back in Kansas just wants her to play with dolls. The book captures a time and place that is exactly how I imagine it to be."

About the author's life:

Adrienne Richard: "I am tempted to say: Very little more is known. In the deepest sense this is true, but still there are the facts.

"I was born north of Chicago in 1921. My pre-school years were spent with two brothers, one older and one younger, where my parents’ busy household included one grandmother or the other, a story-telling laundress named Nettie Proctor. I remember trips to Schlosser’s Market, Wilson’s Bakery, Zick’s Department Store, the green grocer’s, the bank, the library, the railroad station; later, progressive Winnetka schools, Horace Mann Grade School, Skokie Junior High, and New Trier High School. Certain features demarcated my physical horizons – the great Lake Michigan to the east, the farmlands and great prairies to the west, the woods around our house.

"As my world grew wider, Chicago was central: my father’s place of business, the Blakeley Printing Company on the Chicago River; the World’s Fair of 1933 with its Italian airplanes and Chinese dancers; Saturday excursions to the Chicago Art Institute and the Field Museum; summer trips by car to Canadian lakes, to New Mexico; one year spent in the Ojai Valley; two years in Tucson where I graduated from high school, many visits to northern Mexico.

"All this time, I was learning, observing, finding my ever-changing self, and finding my way as a writer, starting first with journalism. Wars in distant reaches of the world, the loss of friends. Then love, our wildly modern house in Davenport, Iowa, my own family including three sons; my husband, Jim, our shared perspective on the world and what we should do in it.

"I met Jim at the University of Chicago. He came from Miles City, Montana. We were together 49 years, from 1943 until his death in 1992, with a year and a half separation during World War II. Some of his stories of growing up in Montana in the 1930’s went into my young adult novel, Pistol (The New York Times ‘Top Ten’ in 1969). Experiences in Israel on the archaeological site became the background for the second book, The Accomplice; stories of my own life in my third novel, Wings. My sons were the models for the brothers in my fourth novel, Into The Road, three pressed into two characters.

"In 1992, when Jim died, I was 70, and as the survivor, I realized I faced the re-design of my life. I wanted to get back to some creative work. Yet I feared the long days of writing novels closed off in my library for a year or more. I needed projects that took me out into the world, engaged me with people. The brevity of a poem appealed to me. Unlike a novel, it didn’t take two years to write one. Now, more than 20 years later, I have a body of work, with many rewarding moments, and many beloved friends to thank for the richness of these years. This book of poetry has come of all this."

https://chla.memberclicks.net/phoenix-award
(she was nominated for "Pistol")

"The Children's Literature Association Phoenix Award recognizes books of exceptional literary merit. First presented in 1985, it is given to the author, or the estate of the author, of a book for children first published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award at the time of its publication but which, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special attention. Since 1989, honor books have also been named."

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/247217.Adrienne_Richard
(reader reviews)

WORKS:

Pistol (1969)

"Billy 'Pistol' Catlett had the world by the tail. Summertimes he rode the range, learning the tricks of cowpunching and kicking up his heels. Work, adventure, that first love - it was a time of contentment and discovery. Then came the Great Depression, shattering his world and ending the "Sunup" section of this novel.

"In part two, 'Sundown,' we get the grittiness of the Depression - ranches ruined, land blowing away and men drifting like tumbleweed, desperation and despair. The Catlett family is stricken, the sons alienated from their father. But Billy Catlett learns how to face life, 'looking the whole naked business square in the eye.' "

The accomplice: A novel (1973)
"Hoping to get better acquainted with his archaeologist father, fifteen-year-old Benjy joins him on a dig in Israel but only complicates the situation by becoming involved in an Arab terrorist plot."

Into the Road (1976)
"Nat leaves his job in his uncle's pizza parlor and, with his brother Cy, takes to the road, drifting from one motorcycle rally to the next."

Epilepsy: A New Approach (1990, with Joel Reiter)

"This book is a unique collaboration between a gifted writer with epilepsy and a skilled physician who has brought new insight into the treatment of this condition.

"At the age of twenty-six, when Adrienne Richard was seven months pregnant, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. For years she took anticonvulsant drugs to control her seizures, but she wanted to wean herself from the powerful drugs if she could. During the first ten years without medication she had only one seizure. Her goal was to live seizure-free. Ms. Richard practiced yoga, biofeedback, and mind/body techniques in the eighties to help her reach that goal. While writing an article for a magazine based in California, she learned of Dr. Joel Reiter, who was exploring epilepsy self-care in his clinical practice and through his groundbreaking research. Epilepsy: A New Approach combines Adrienne Richard's own inspiring story of overcoming a debilitating condition with Dr. Reiter's up-to-the-minute medical knowledge of diagnosis and treatment. This self-help program offers people with epilepsy and those who love them a chance to regain control of their lives."

Looking for Flannel Pajamas: Selected Poems 1993-2010 (2013)

Thank you for posting, Lenona (and, oddly, on my most recent birthday!)

Pat (the name she used with friends and family) was my classmate in a masters program in holistic studies in the 80s, and a somewhat distant friend for decades, although I had not seen her in awhile (since the onset of dementia). Periodically, I have searched the obituaries, knowing her advanced age.. It is weird, isn't it, that there was no obit. I would have attended the memorial service, had I known about it.

She was a lovely, thoughtful, intelligent person with a lively mind and wide-ranging interests. Born on Halloween, she took a strong interest in Dio de los Muertos, and traveled to Mexico to celebrate it, for many years. I shared many lunches with her on the patio of her Weston home, which was filled with beautiful art and artifacts from her travels.

It was a blessing to be her friend! I wish her well on her path, whatever comes next.

Tiger/Lisa

On Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 3:00:13 PM UTC-4, Lenona wrote:
> Not to be confused with the poet Adrienne Rich (1929-2012).
>
> I find it bizarre that I can't find even a tiny, REAL death notice...
>
> She lived in Weston, Massachusetts.
>
> Look closely.
>
> https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/adrienne-richard_id_G3948367782597192984
>
> They DID mix up her husband with her son, however! (I only tracked down the above information by including one or two of her three sons' names.)
>
> I thought she was a Newbery nominee as well, but it seems I was mistaken. (She was, however, nominated for a Phoenix Award - more on that later.)
>
> https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=567016438&rlz=1CAJMBU_enUS1076&q=%22adrienne+richard%22+books&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj02ry27rmBAxVKmokEHYSjDrgQ0pQJegQICRAB&biw=1366&bih=644&dpr=1
> (book covers)
>
> https://www.nationalbook.org/people/adrienne-richard/
> (photo and book cover)
>
> About her novel "Wings" (1974), which was nominated for the National Book Award:
>
> "Her relationship with Radyar, the dashing, sensitive astrologer brings both great joy and tremendous disappointment to the life of a small girl in southern California after World War I."
>
> And, form Goodreads:
>
> "...Just reread it again and loved it as much as ever. Pip is a young girl living in a small Southern California town in the 1920s with her divorced mother and older brother. The mother and her friends are free-thinking Bohemians who practice yoga and include astrologers and modern dancers like Ruth-darling. Pip wants nothing more than to be an aviatrix while her strait-laced father back in Kansas just wants her to play with dolls. The book captures a time and place that is exactly how I imagine it to be."
>
> About the author's life:
>
> Adrienne Richard: "I am tempted to say: Very little more is known. In the deepest sense this is true, but still there are the facts.
>
> "I was born north of Chicago in 1921. My pre-school years were spent with two brothers, one older and one younger, where my parents’ busy household included one grandmother or the other, a story-telling laundress named Nettie Proctor. I remember trips to Schlosser’s Market, Wilson’s Bakery, Zick’s Department Store, the green grocer’s, the bank, the library, the railroad station; later, progressive Winnetka schools, Horace Mann Grade School, Skokie Junior High, and New Trier High School. Certain features demarcated my physical horizons – the great Lake Michigan to the east, the farmlands and great prairies to the west, the woods around our house.
>
> "As my world grew wider, Chicago was central: my father’s place of business, the Blakeley Printing Company on the Chicago River; the World’s Fair of 1933 with its Italian airplanes and Chinese dancers; Saturday excursions to the Chicago Art Institute and the Field Museum; summer trips by car to Canadian lakes, to New Mexico; one year spent in the Ojai Valley; two years in Tucson where I graduated from high school, many visits to northern Mexico.
>
> "All this time, I was learning, observing, finding my ever-changing self, and finding my way as a writer, starting first with journalism. Wars in distant reaches of the world, the loss of friends. Then love, our wildly modern house in Davenport, Iowa, my own family including three sons; my husband, Jim, our shared perspective on the world and what we should do in it.
>
> "I met Jim at the University of Chicago. He came from Miles City, Montana.. We were together 49 years, from 1943 until his death in 1992, with a year and a half separation during World War II. Some of his stories of growing up in Montana in the 1930’s went into my young adult novel, Pistol (The New York Times ‘Top Ten’ in 1969). Experiences in Israel on the archaeological site became the background for the second book, The Accomplice; stories of my own life in my third novel, Wings. My sons were the models for the brothers in my fourth novel, Into The Road, three pressed into two characters.
>
> "In 1992, when Jim died, I was 70, and as the survivor, I realized I faced the re-design of my life. I wanted to get back to some creative work. Yet I feared the long days of writing novels closed off in my library for a year or more. I needed projects that took me out into the world, engaged me with people. The brevity of a poem appealed to me. Unlike a novel, it didn’t take two years to write one. Now, more than 20 years later, I have a body of work, with many rewarding moments, and many beloved friends to thank for the richness of these years. This book of poetry has come of all this."
>
>
> https://chla.memberclicks.net/phoenix-award
> (she was nominated for "Pistol")
>
> "The Children's Literature Association Phoenix Award recognizes books of exceptional literary merit. First presented in 1985, it is given to the author, or the estate of the author, of a book for children first published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award at the time of its publication but which, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special attention. Since 1989, honor books have also been named."
>
>
> https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/247217.Adrienne_Richard
> (reader reviews)
>
> WORKS:
>
> Pistol (1969)
>
> "Billy 'Pistol' Catlett had the world by the tail. Summertimes he rode the range, learning the tricks of cowpunching and kicking up his heels. Work, adventure, that first love - it was a time of contentment and discovery. Then came the Great Depression, shattering his world and ending the "Sunup" section of this novel.
>
> "In part two, 'Sundown,' we get the grittiness of the Depression - ranches ruined, land blowing away and men drifting like tumbleweed, desperation and despair. The Catlett family is stricken, the sons alienated from their father. But Billy Catlett learns how to face life, 'looking the whole naked business square in the eye.' "
>
> The accomplice: A novel (1973)
> "Hoping to get better acquainted with his archaeologist father, fifteen-year-old Benjy joins him on a dig in Israel but only complicates the situation by becoming involved in an Arab terrorist plot."
>
> Into the Road (1976)
> "Nat leaves his job in his uncle's pizza parlor and, with his brother Cy, takes to the road, drifting from one motorcycle rally to the next."
>
> Epilepsy: A New Approach (1990, with Joel Reiter)
>
> "This book is a unique collaboration between a gifted writer with epilepsy and a skilled physician who has brought new insight into the treatment of this condition.
>
> "At the age of twenty-six, when Adrienne Richard was seven months pregnant, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. For years she took anticonvulsant drugs to control her seizures, but she wanted to wean herself from the powerful drugs if she could. During the first ten years without medication she had only one seizure. Her goal was to live seizure-free. Ms. Richard practiced yoga, biofeedback, and mind/body techniques in the eighties to help her reach that goal. While writing an article for a magazine based in California, she learned of Dr. Joel Reiter, who was exploring epilepsy self-care in his clinical practice and through his groundbreaking research. Epilepsy: A New Approach combines Adrienne Richard's own inspiring story of overcoming a debilitating condition with Dr. Reiter's up-to-the-minute medical knowledge of diagnosis and treatment. This self-help program offers people with epilepsy and those who love them a chance to regain control of their lives."
>
> Looking for Flannel Pajamas: Selected Poems 1993-2010 (2013)

You're welcome!