Noah Stewart RIP

Noah Stewart


All of his friends must be devastated to hear of the death of Noah Stewart, one of the leading members of our loose group of fans of Golden Age detective stories.

His family announced this week that he had died of lung cancer – he was diagnosed in August.

He was one of the kindest, funniest and most knowledgeable people on the Internet. I never met him IRL, but he was very much a friend. We both contributed to the Curtis-Evans-edited Murder in the Closet, and I tried hard to persuade him to come to the Edgar Awards ceremony this year when the book was nominated – I so hoped to have the chance to meet him and take him out to lunch. But it didn’t happen.

But we continued to exchange messages till quite recently: he always had something cheering to say, and we shared an unlikely interest in Patricia Wentworth – he wrote the most perceptive piece ever about her. And he let me have Miss Silver when a group of us chose our favourite detectives to write about – this is what I said then:

And first I need to say a big thank you to Noah Stewart of Noah’s Archives, because he claimed Miss Silver for his list, then generously said that I could have her. That was particularly good of him because he has written brilliantly on Wentworth’s Silver books before now, and even did a marvellous post on her clothes (!of all things – but I don’t claim copyright on that particular subject). I strongly recommend reading both these posts before I move in to trivialize the subject of Miss S, by comparing her with Miss Marple.

He kindly once told me that he always knew when I had given a plug for that Wentworth piece, because he would see a spike in the viewing figures.

The only thing wrong with Noah’s Archives, his wonderful blog, was that he didn’t post often enough: I’m sure all of us were the same, rushing over there to read whenever he did come up with something.

I will miss him so much: no more helpful comments and links and messages and files turning up in dropbox, no more tipoffs to great clothes scenes in books, no more of our discussions on what (I think he invented this phrase) he called ‘brownstone mysteries’, those New York stories we both liked to read.

I know all our group will feel the same. He will not be forgotten. Condolences to his family and friends.








Comments

  1. A lovely tribute, Moira, to a lovely man. We will all miss him.

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    1. We will, Margot. He was a much-loved member of our community.

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  2. Amen, Moira. I had a long-running Messenger conversation with him on Facebook that I just copied and saved to my files--I didn't want to lose his brilliant comments and quips.

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    1. A good idea, Bev, he was such an entertaining guy. Oh we will miss him.

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  3. And that wickedly dishy series "100 Books To Die Before You Read Them." Hilarious stuff! He was like the Waldo Lydecker of the vintage crime blogs. I was so saddened to read this news on Brad' s blog first. Everyone has such lovely things to say about their digital friendship with Noah. I too remember so many acts of kindness on his part. Several years ago he sent me a couple of very rare movies (he had a HUGE collection of old films on his computer!) on a flash drive and I was so disappointed that the format for one wouldn't work on my antiquated Mac. But thanks to Noah I did get to see the movie adaptation of Mignon Eberhart's While the Patient Slept with the wonderful Aline McMahon as Nurse Sarah Keate and for that I was delighted and grateful. Without people like Noah sending me these films my addiction to old cinema would be that less richer. Noah was one of those rare people so generous and open to relative strangers. You don't find them easily these days. He knew so many people in the Canadian antiquarian book world, too and we shared stories about the best places to find old mysteries in his neck of North America (and beyond). I suspected something dire had happened when his blog went dormant for so long. Let's hope that wherever he is now he has found his niche and is making everyone feel welcome and at ease.

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    1. Indeed John, what a lovely thought. And nothing was too much trouble for him, he always did whatever he could, but made light of it. And oh, he was funny. The Books to Die Before You Read Them will live with me forever, it made me laugh every time, and of course became a useful category for all of us I think...

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  4. I'm extremely sorry to hear this tragic news.

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  5. Such very sad news. Noah made me laugh and I felt he was a kindred spirit even though I never met him - I am sure many other people felt too: a tribute to the kind of person that he was.

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  6. I will miss Noah and his blog posts, too. He was very informed and informative and I loved his posts full of lovely book covers. This is a very nice tribute

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    1. Thanks Tracy. He was so friendly and kind to all of us.

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  7. Moira: Thanks for the tribute. For some reason I had not encountered him online. I wish I had known him.

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    1. I guarantee you would have liked him Bill. You are my two favourite Canadians.

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  8. Moira, I remember seeing comments from him on your blog, but never crossed paths with him. I'm sad to hear the news though.

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    1. He will be much missed. A real gentleman, and very funny and knowledgable.

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  9. Very sad news. I'm a sporadic blog follower these days, but Noah's Archives remained on my list of sporadics always. My thoughts are with his family and friends. .

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    1. I know - I think we all feel the same. He is much missed.

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