Russell Hoban

Later life

The last of Hoban's novels published during his lifetime was Angelica Lost and Found (October 2010), in which the hippogriff from Girolamo da Carpi's Ruggiero Saving Angelica breaks free from the 16th-century painting to search for Angelica in 21st-century San Francisco.

Hoban died on 13 December 2011. and Rosie's Magic Horse, illustrated by Quentin Blake. Deacon also provided artwork for a new version of Jim's Lion, published in 2014, which changed the format from a traditional picture book to a combination of text chapters and comics.

After his death, Hoban's papers were archived by writer Paul Cooper, and in 2016 the archive was acquired by the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

Fan and community activity

In May 1998, Dave Awl, a writer/performer with the experimental Chicago theatre troupe the Neo-Futurists, launched the first comprehensive Russell Hoban reference website, The Head of Orpheus, to which Russell Hoban regularly contributed news and information up until his death. In the fall of 1999, Awl founded a Hoban-themed online community called The Kraken (named after one of the characters in Hoban's 1987 novel The Medusa Frequency), which grew into an international network of Russell Hoban fans.

In 2002 an annual fan activity dubbed the Slickman A4 Quotation Event (SA4QE) (named after its founder, Diana Slickman, also a member of the Neo-Futurists) began, in which Hoban enthusiasts celebrate his birthday by writing down favourite quotes from his books (invariably on sheets of yellow A4 paper, a recurring Hoban motif) and leaving them in public places. as of February 2011 it has since taken place each year, seeing over 350 quotes distributed around 46 towns and cities throughout 14 countries.

In 2005 fans from across the world celebrated Hoban's work in London at the first international convention for the author, The Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum (a pun on symposium from Riddley Walker). A booklet was published by the organisers to commemorate the event featuring tributes to Hoban from a variety of contributors including actor and politician Glenda Jackson, novelist David Mitchell, composer Harrison Birtwistle and screenwriter Andrew Davies.

In 2012 a new "official" Russell Hoban website, www.russellhoban.org, was built and launched by volunteers from the community, with the approval of the author's family.

Stage adaptations

In 1984, Hoban collaborated with the Impact Theatre Co-operative on a performance titled The Carrier Frequency. Hoban supplied the text for the piece, which was staged and performed by Impact. In 1999, The Carrier Frequency was restaged by the theater company Stan's Cafe.

In February 1986, a theatrical version of Hoban's novel Riddley Walker (adapted by Hoban himself) premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Its US premiere was at the Chocolate Bayou Theatre, in April 1987, directed by Greg Roach.

In March 1989 a stage adaptation of Kleinzeit was presented by the Tower Theatre Company, directed by Peta Barker, who had adapted the novel. One performance was seen by Russell Hoban who wrote a critique of the play, written on yellow paper, which is a major theme of the novel.

In 2011, the Trouble Puppet Theater Company produced an adaptation of Riddley Walker, with permission from and the aid of Russell Hoban. Artistic Director Connor Hopkins created the puppet theater play, with performances September 29 through October 16, 2011, at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, Texas, U.S. The production employed tabletop puppetry inspired by the Bunraku tradition and enjoyed popular and critical success.

In 2012, the Royal Shakespeare Company announced that it would be premiering a new staging of Hoban's novel The Mouse and His Child as part of its winter 2012–13 season.

Themes

Hoban is often described as a fantasy writer, and only two of his novels, Turtle Diary and The Bat Tattoo, are entirely devoid of supernatural elements. However, the fantasy elements are usually presented as only moderately surprising developments in an otherwise realistic contemporary story, which is magic realism. Exceptions include Kleinzeit, a comic fantasy whose characters include Death, Hospital, and Underground; Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1971, republished 1992), ill. Lillian Hoban, (also a 1977 TV special) The Sea-thing Child (Harper & Row, 1972, ), picture book illustrated by Abrom Hoban; reissued 1999 by Candlewick Press, ill. Patrick Benson Egg Thoughts and Other Frances Songs (1972), (ill. Lillian Hoban, poetry) How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen (1974), A Near Thing for Captain Najork (1975), The Twenty Elephant Restaurant (1978), ill. Emily Arnold McCully La Corona and the Tin Frog (1979), ill. Nicola Bayley, Dinner at Alberta's (1979), ill. James Marshall The Dancing Tigers (1979), ill. David Gentleman, Flat Cat (1980), ill. Clive Scruton Ace Dragon Ltd. (1980), ill. Quentin Blake Arthur's New Power (1980), ill. Bryon Barton Serpent Tower (1981), ill. David Scott The Mole Family's Christmas (1969), ill. Lillian Hoban The Great Fruit Gum Robbery (1981), ill. Colin McNaughton They Came from Aargh! (1981), ill. Colin McNaughton The Flight of Bembel Rudzuk (1982), ill. Colin McNaughton The Battle of Zormla (1982), ill. Colin McNaughton Jim Frog (1983), ill. Martin Baynton Big John Turkle (1983), ill. Martin Baynton Lavinia Bat (1984), ill. Martin Baynton Charlie Meadows (1984), ill. Martin Baynton The Marzipan Pig (1986), Rain Door (1987), Monsters (1989), ill. Quentin Blake Jim Hedgehog and the Lonesome Tower (1990), ill. John Rogan Jim Hedgehog's Supernatural Christmas (1994) The Trokeville Way (1996), The Last of the Wallendas (1997), (poetry) Jim's Lion (2001), ill. Ian Andrew Soonchild (2012), Rosie's Magic Horse (2013), ill. Quentin Blake Trouble on Thunder Mountain, ill. Quentin Blake

Other works The Carrier Frequency (1984), stage play Deadsy and the Sexo-Chanjo (1989) and Door (1990), under the heading "Deadtime Stories for Big Folk", text and narration for animated films by David Anderson The Second Mrs Kong (1994), libretto for opera composed by Harrison Birtwistle The Moment Under the Moment (1992), stories, a libretto, essays and sketches

Film Turtle Diary (1985)