Caleb Carr, Author, has passed.
A shockingly short life for a writer I greatly enjoyed reading, we have lost a truly gifted talent.
Sometime in the 1990’s I was given a copy of The Alienist, by Caleb Carr. I was traveling a lot for work, and I would grab books from friends and used book stores to devour on my trips, often leaving them behind once I finished1.
But I knew almost immediately upon opening The Alienist that I had encountered someone special. His gritty historical fiction really grabs you at a visceral level, and while his prose was very graphic, the tales of NYC in the late 19th century very much grittier than most of the fare of the fiction, it was also fascinating.
Tonight, I opened the Washington Post, and saw his Obit, and I was saddened to read that he passed on May 23, at the young age of 68.
I read a few more of his works, but the one that sticks in my mind is The Alienist. In it, a psychologist (in that era, the term “psychologist” hadn’t been coined, instead they were called Alienists) was consulted by the chief of police of NY, a brash up and comer that you may have heard of, Theodore Roosevelt2, who has a series of grisly murders to solve, and the rather corrupt NYPD of the era was wholly unsuitable for such a challenge.
The story wends and wafts, with the introduction of new techniques and technologies, that I am sure were not really introduced in the manner that Carr wrote about, but it made a great story.
From the obituary, there is plenty of detail of Caleb’s early life, and his growing up in the heart of the “Beat” era.
Do read the obit, and if you haven’t read The Alienist, I can heartily recommend it.
Now I will re-read it in remembrance and get the same nightmares all over again.
Most of my travels in this era were to Asia, and I stayed mostly at hotels that catered to westerners, and it was common for there to be small “libraries” of cast-off books. I left many and took more than a few in my day.
Yes, that same Roosevelt that became president. He was indeed the chief of police!
That's so sad. 😪😪
Geoff, the Alienist was my first taste of Carr's exceptional style and writing too.
The title spoke to me although the story within was nothing like I expected never having heard the term "Alienist" before. I was thinking ALIENS but I stuck with the story to the end and what a rewarding experience that was.
I love the books that have me read them with joy!