Patrick O'Brian, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English naval captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen Maturin. The 20-novel series is known for its well-researched and highly detailed portrayal of early 19th-century life, as well as its authentic and evocative language. A partially finished twenty-first novel in the series was published posthumously containing facing pages of handwriting and typescript.

Biography[link]

Childhood, early career and first marriage[link]

O'Brian was born Richard Patrick Russ, in Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, and was the son of a physician of German descent and an English mother of Irish descent. The eighth of nine children, he lost his mother at the age of three, and his biographers describe a fairly isolated childhood, with sporadic schooling and long intervals at home with his father and stepmother, during which time his literary career began. In 1934 he underwent a brief period of pilot training with the Royal Air Force but this was not successful, and by 1935 he was living in London, where he married his first wife, Elizabeth Jones, in 1936. They had two children; the second, a daughter, suffered from spina bifida and died in 1942 aged three, by which time O'Brian had left the family in their remote country cottage and returned to London, where he worked throughout the war. Commentators including biographer Dean King have claimed that O'Brian was actively involved in intelligence work and perhaps special operations overseas during the war^{[1]:p.89–104} and that these experiences informed those of his character Stephen Maturin, an intelligence agent. In fact, O'Brian wrote in an essay, "Black, Choleric and Married?" included in the book "Patrick O'Brian: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography (1994)"^[2] that: "Some time after the blitz had died away I joined one of those intelligence organisations that flourished during the War, perpetually changing their initials and competing with one another. Our work had to do with France, and more than that I shall not say, since disclosing methods and stratagems that have deceived the enemy once and that may deceive him again seems to me foolish. After the war we retired to Wales (I say we because my wife and I had driven ambulances and served in intelligence together) where we lived for a while in a high Welsh-speaking valley..." which confirms in first person at least the intelligence connection, as well as introducing his wife Mary as a coworker and fellow intelligence operative. Despite the revelations in O'Brian's essay, O'Brian's stepson Nikolai Tolstoy disputes this,^[3] although he confirms that O'Brian worked as a volunteer ambulance driver during the Blitz, where he met Mary, the separated wife of Russian-born nobleman and lawyer Count Dimitri Tolstoy. They lived together through the latter part of the war and, after both were divorced from their previous spouses, they married in July 1945. The following month he changed his name by deed poll to Patrick O'Brian.

Second marriage and later career[link]

Between 1946 and 1949 the O'Brians lived in Cwm Croesor, a remote valley in north Wales, where they initially rented a cottage from Clough Williams-Ellis. The area enabled O'Brian to pursue his interest in natural history; he fished, went birdwatching, and followed the local hunt. During this time they lived on Mary O'Brian's small income and the limited earnings from O'Brian's writings. The countryside and people provided inspiration for many of his short stories of the period, and also his novel Testimonies (1952), which is set in a thinly disguised Cwm Croesor, and which was well received by critics. In 1949 O'Brian and Mary moved to Collioure, a Catalan town in southern France. Over the ensuing four decades he worked on his own writings, his British literary reputation growing slowly, and also became an established translator of French works into English. In the early 1990s the Aubrey-Maturin series was successfully relaunched into the American market, attracting critical acclaim and dramatically increasing O'Brian's sales and public profile in the UK and America.^[1]:ch.22-23 In 1995 he was awarded the inaugural Heywood Hill Literary Prize for his lifetime's writings, and he received a CBE in 1997. He and Mary remained together in Collioure until her death in 1998, but he continued to work on his naval novels, spending the winter of 1998–1999 at Trinity College, Dublin, which had awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1997.

Media exposure and controversy in his final years[link]

O'Brian protected his privacy fiercely and was reluctant to reveal any details about his private life or past, preferring to include no biographical details on his book jackets and supplying only a minimum of personal information when pressed to do so.^[4] For many years reviewers and journalists presumed he was Irish,^[5] and he took no steps to correct the impression. In 1998 a BBC documentary followed by an exposé in the Daily Telegraph^[6] made public the facts of his ancestry, original name and first marriage, provoking considerable critical media comment. In the introduction to his biography of O'Brian, his stepson and O'Brian historian Nikolai Tolstoy claims to give a more accurate and balanced account of his late stepfather's character, actions and motives, particularly in respect of his first marriage and family.

O'Brian died in January 2000 during a stay in Dublin, and his body was returned to Collioure, where he is buried next to his wife.^[7]

Published biographies[link]

Dean H. King's life of O'Brian, Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed was the first biography to document O'Brian's early life under his original name.

Nikolai Tolstoy is O'Brian's stepson through O'Brian's marriage to Mary (Wicksteed) Tolstoy, who divorced Count Dmitri Tolstoy in order to marry O'Brian in 1945. In November 2004, Nikolai Tolstoy published Patrick O'Brian: The Making of the Novelist, the first volume in a two-part biography of O'Brian using material from the Russ and Tolstoy families and sources, including O'Brian's personal papers and library, which Tolstoy inherited on O'Brian's death.

Literary career[link]

O'Brian published two novels, a collection of stories and several uncollected stories under his original name, Richard Patrick Russ. His first book, Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda-Leopard, was written at the age of 12 and published three years later in 1930. It was a critical success, with a recommendation in the New Statesman and positive reviews in publications including the New York Herald Tribune and the Saturday Review of Literature.^[1]:p.50 Other stories followed, published in boys' magazines and annuals and incorporating themes of natural history and adventure, and a collection of these and other animal stories was published in 1934 under the title Beasts Royal, with illustrations by the noted artist Charles Tunnicliffe, illustrator of Tarka the Otter. Hussein: An entertainment, set in India, was published in 1938, when he was 23. It was notable for being the first book of contemporary fiction ever published by the Oxford University Press,^[1]:p.75 to whose annuals for boys he had been a regular contributor for some years.

O'Brian published very little under his original name of Russ during World War II, and nothing after 1940. His change of surname in 1945 necessarily meant abandoning the literary reputation he had built up as R. P. Russ, and although he returned to writing after the war, when he moved to rural Wales, his non-fiction anthology A Book of Voyages (1947) attracted little attention. A collection of short stories, The Last Pool, was published in 1950 and was more widely and favourably reviewed, although sales were low.^{[1]:pp. 151–151}

In the 1950s O'Brian wrote three books aimed at a younger age group, The Road to Samarcand, The Golden Ocean, and The Unknown Shore. Although written many years before the Aubrey–Maturin series, the three novels reveal literary antecedents of Aubrey and Maturin. In the Road to Samarcand they can be discerned in Captain Sullivan and Professor Ayrton^{[citation needed]}. In The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore, based on events of the Anson circumnavigation of 1740–1743, they can be clearly seen in the characters of Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow.^[1]:p.180

Aubrey-Maturin series[link]

Beginning in 1970, O'Brian began writing what turned into the 20-volume Aubrey-Maturin series of novels. The books are set in the early 19th century and describe the life and careers of Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, naval surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin. The books are distinguished by O'Brian's deliberate use and adaptation of actual historical events, either integrating his protagonists in the action without changing the outcome, or using adapted historical events as templates. In addition to this trait and to O'Brian's distinctive literary style, his sense of humour is prominent (see Humour in main article, Aubrey-Maturin series). Technical sailing terminology is employed throughout the series. The books are considered by critics to be a roman fleuve, which can be read as one long story; the books follow Aubrey and Maturin's professional and domestic lives continuously.

Other works[link]

As well as his historical novels, O'Brian wrote three adult mainstream novels, six story collections, and a history of the Royal Navy aimed at young readers. He was also a respected translator, responsible for more than 30 translations from the French, including Henri Charrière's Papillon into English, Jean Lacouture's biography of Charles de Gaulle, as well as many of Simone de Beauvoir's later works.

O'Brian also wrote detailed biographies of Sir Joseph Banks, an English naturalist who took part in Cook's first voyage (and who appears briefly in O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series), and Pablo Picasso. His biography of Picasso is a massive and comprehensive study of the artist. Picasso lived for a time in Collioure, the same French village as O'Brian, and the two came to be acquainted there.

Peter Weir's 2003 film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is loosely based on the novel The Far Side of the World from the Aubrey–Maturin series for its plot, but draws on a number of the novels for incidents within the film.

Mary's love and support were critical to O'Brian throughout his career. She worked with him in the British Library in the 1940s as he collected source material for his anthology A Book of Voyages, which became the first book to bear his new name—the book was among his favourites, because of this close collaboration. He claimed that he wrote "like a Christian, with ink and quill"; Mary was his first reader and typed his manuscripts "pretty" for the publisher. Her death in March 1998 was a tremendous blow to O'Brian and in the last two years of his life, particularly once the purported details of his early life were revealed to the world, he was a "lonely, tortured, and at the last possibly paranoid figure."^[4]

Original manuscripts[link]

O'Brian wrote all of his books and stories by hand, shunning both typewriter and word processor. The handwritten manuscripts for 18 of the Aubrey-Maturin novels have been acquired by the Lilly Library at Indiana University. Only two - The Letter of Marque and Blue at the Mizzen - remain in private hands. The O'Brian manuscript collection at the Lilly Library also includes the manuscripts for Picasso and Joseph Banks and detailed notes for six of the Aubrey/Maturin novels.

Nikolai Tolstoy also possesses an extensive collection of O'Brian manuscript material, including the second half of Hussein, several short stories, much of the reportedly "lost" book on Bestiaries, letters, diaries, journals, notes, poems, book reviews, and several unpublished short stories (Tolstoy, various pages).

Bibliography[link]

The Aubrey–Maturin series[link]

1. Master and Commander (1969)
2. Post Captain (1972)
3. HMS Surprise (1973)
4. The Mauritius Command (1977)
5. Desolation Island (1978)
6. The Fortune of War (1979)
7. The Surgeon's Mate (1980)
8. The Ionian Mission (1981)
9. Treason's Harbour (1983)
10. The Far Side of the World (1984)
11. The Reverse of the Medal (1986)
12. The Letter of Marque (1988)
13. The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989)
14. The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)
15. Clarissa Oakes (1992)
    (published as The Truelove in the USA)
16. The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)
17. The Commodore (1994)
18. The Yellow Admiral (1996)
19. The Hundred Days (1998)
20. Blue at the Mizzen (1999)
21. The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2004)
    (published as 21 in the USA)

Fiction (non-serial)[link]

• Caesar (1930, his first book, which led him to be often labelled by critics as the 'boy-Thoreau')
• Wang Khan of the Elephants (1933)
• Hussein, An Entertainment (1938)
• Testimonies (1952) (Three Bear Witness in the U.K.)
• The Catalans (1953) (The Frozen Flame in the U.K.)
• The Road to Samarcand (1954)
• The Golden Ocean (1956)
• The Unknown Shore (1959)
• Richard Temple (1962)

Short story collections[link]

• Beasts Royal (1934)
• The Last Pool and Other Stories (1950)
• The Walker and Other Stories (1955)
• Lying in the Sun and Other Stories (1956)
• The Chian Wine and Other Stories (1974)
• Collected Short Stories (1994; The Rendezvous and Other Stories in the U.S.)

Non-fiction[link]

• Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy (1974). ISBN 0-393-03858-0
• Picasso (1976; originally titled Pablo Ruiz Picasso). ISBN 0-00-717357-1
• Joseph Banks: A Life (1987) The Harvill Press, London. Paperback reprint, 1989. ISBN 1-86046-406-8

English translations of other authors' works[link]

• Papillon by Henri Charrière. London, Hart-Davis (1970)
• Banco: The further adventures of Papillon by Henri Charrière. New York, William Morrow (1973)

See also[link]

• Lord Cochrane "the sea wolf" (1775–1860)
• C. S. Forester - author of the Horatio Hornblower novels

Biographies[link]

Since his death, there have been two biographies published, though the first was well advanced when he died. The second is the first volume of a planned two-volume biography by O'Brian's stepson.

• Dean H. King (2000). Patrick O'Brian – A life revealed. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. ISBN 0-340-79256-6. 
• Dean H. King (2001). In Search of Patrick O'Brian. Holt (Henry) & Co, U.S.. ISBN 0-8050-5977-6.  (US edition of the above book)
• Nikolai Tolstoy (2004). Patrick O'Brian: The Making of the Novelist. Century. ISBN 0-7126-7025-4. 
• Nikolai Tolstoy (2005). Patrick O'Brian: The Making of the Novelist 1914–1949. W W Norton & Co Ltd. ISBN 0-393-06130-2.  (US edition of the above book)

Also of importance when studying O'Brian:

• A. E. Cunningham (Editor) (1994). Patrick O'Brian: Critical appreciations and a bibliography. British Library. ISBN 0-7123-1071-1. 
• Richard O'Neill (2003). Patrick O'Brian's Navy, The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World:. Salamander Books. ISBN 0-7624-1540-1. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Patrick O'Brian Home Page – introduction to the author and his books, by his US publisher.
• Stephen Becker. "Patrick O'Brian, The Art of Fiction No. 142". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1628/the-art-of-fiction-no-142-patrick-obrian. 
• WikiPOBia – wiki to annotate the written works of Patrick O'Brian.
• Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project – A Google Maps mashup project to map all 21 books in the Aubrey–Maturin series.
• A Gunroom guide to Patrick O'Brian Web Resources – comprehensive annotated link list
• Daisya obriani – Lesser Weevil named for O'Brian

Chuck Schuldiner
Chuck Schuldiner on tour in Scotland, 1992
Background information
Birth name	Charles Michael Schuldiner
Also known as	"The Father of Death Metal", "Evil Chuck" (at start of career)[1]
Born	(1967-05-13)May 13, 1967
Origin	Glen Cove, New York
Died	December 13, 2001(2001-12-13) (aged 34)
Genres	Death metal, progressive metal, technical death metal, heavy metal[2][3][4]
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass
Years active	1983–2001
Associated acts	Death Slaughter Control Denied Voodoocult
Website	The Official Chuck Schuldiner Website
Notable instruments
B.C. Rich Stealth model B.C. Rich Mockingbird model B.C. Rich Ignitor model

Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner (May 13, 1967 – December 13, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

Schuldiner was the singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the band Death, which he founded in 1983, under the name Mantas. He also recorded as guitarist and songwriter with his other band, Control Denied. Schuldiner is often referred to as "The Father of Death Metal",^[5][6][7] and his obituary in the January 5, 2002 issue of UK's Kerrang! magazine stated that "Chuck Schuldiner was one of the most significant figures in the history of metal."^[8] Schuldiner himself was modest about his part in the history of death metal, noting "I don’t think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I'm just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band."^[6] Schuldiner was ranked No. 10 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists in 2009 and No. 20 in March 2004 Guitar World's "The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists".^[9] Schuldiner founded the publishing company Mutilation Music in 1987, affiliated with performance rights organization BMI.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Chuck Schuldiner was born on May 13, 1967 on Long Island, New York to a Jewish father of Austrian descent and a mother from the American South, a convert to Judaism.^[10] Both of his parents were teachers. In 1968, his family moved to Florida. Schuldiner was the youngest of three children. He had an older brother named Frank and an older sister named Bethann.

Schuldiner started playing guitar at the age of 9. His 16 year old brother had died^[11] and his parents bought him a guitar, thinking it would help with his grief.^[12] He took classical lessons for less than a year in which his teacher taught him "Mary had a Little Lamb", which he did not like very much, and almost stopped completely, until his parents saw an electric guitar at a yard sale and bought it for him. The young Schuldiner immediately took to the instrument. After getting amps, he never stopped playing, writing and teaching himself. Schuldiner was known to spend the weekend in the garage or his room playing his guitar, but was limited to three hours on weekdays when school was in session. Schuldiner first played in public in his early teens.

Schuldiner was originally inspired by Iron Maiden, Kiss and Billy Idol, among others. He was particularly interested in the metal movement known as NWOBHM - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - and cited bands of that genre among his favorites. He frequently cited French band Sortilège as his personal favorite metal group. Slayer, Possessed, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond and Metallica were later influences he would apply more to his own band. Later in his career, Schuldiner frequently cited progressive metal bands such as Watchtower and Queensrÿche as influences. The official Schuldiner website, Empty Words, quotes Schuldiner's mother making the claim that he enjoyed all forms of music except country and rap. He also enjoyed jazz and classical music in addition to metal and British alternative acts such as Lush.

Schuldiner performed well in school before becoming bored with education, and eventually dropped out. He later regretted this decision.^[13] He has stated that if he had not become a musician, he would have liked to have become a veterinarian or a cook.^[14]

Musical career[link]

Schuldiner formed Death as Mantas in 1983 when he was 16 years old. Original members were Schuldiner (guitar), Rick Rozz (guitar) and Kam Lee (drums and vocals). In January 1986, Schuldiner moved to Toronto and temporarily joined the Canadian band Slaughter.^[15] However, he quickly returned to continue the formation of Death.

Death underwent many lineup changes. With Chris Reifert, Schuldiner eventually released the first Death album, titled Scream Bloody Gore, in 1987. He continued with 1988's Leprosy with the line-up of former Mantas guitarist Rick Rozz and rhythm section Terry Butler on bass and Bill Andrews on drums, and 1990's Spiritual Healing, where guitarist James Murphy had replaced the fired Rozz in 1989.

After Spiritual Healing, Schuldiner stopped working with full-time band members, preferring to work with studio and live venue musicians, due to bad relationships with Death's previous rhythm section and guitarists. This earned Schuldiner something of a 'perfectionist' reputation in the metal community. Schuldiner had also fired his manager Eric Greif but settled and re-hired him before the recording of his next, influential release.^[16][17]

Death's breakthrough album, Human saw the band evolving to a more technical and progressive style, in which Schuldiner displayed his guitar skills more than ever. He continued in this style (and continued the success of the band) with 1993's Individual Thought Patterns, 1995's Symbolic, and finally The Sound of Perseverance in 1998. Throughout his career, Schuldiner was not afraid to take on controversial lyrical subjects, taking an anti-drug stance on "Living Monstrosity" and writing about abortion in "Altering the Future".^[18]

He put Death on hold after this to continue Control Denied, which he had been putting together prior to the release of The Sound of Perseverance, and released The Fragile Art of Existence in 1999. Control Denied also had other players from the latest Death album but featured a melodic metal vocalist. Schuldiner also played guitar in the "supergroup" Voodoocult on the album Jesus Killing Machine in 1994 and played a guest solo on Naphobia's 1995 release, Of Hell on the track "As Ancients Evolve" as a favor to the band's bassist at the time who was a friend of Schuldiner's.^[19] Schuldiner was also asked to be one of the many guest vocalists on Dave Grohl's 2001 Probot. Grohl, Napalm Death, Ozzy Osbourne, and Anthrax all increased efforts to raise funds for Schuldiner's medical bills with Grohl trying to involve Schuldiner on an album he was working on.^[20]

In 1998, while touring the world for The Sound of Perseverance album, Schuldiner admitted his disdain for the emerging fusion genre of nu metal. In describing his own music, he referred to it as "...metal - melodic. No hip hop, jumping up and down, baggy trouser crap."^[21]

Vocal style[link]

In the early days of Death, Schuldiner used death growls when performing vocals. As his career progressed, his vocals went up in pitch until, by final Death album The Sound of Perseverance, he employed high pitched screeching more similar to conventional screaming techniques. His vocal style is an influence to many death metal bands.

Death[link]

Battle with cancer[link]

In May 1999, Schuldiner experienced pain in his upper neck, which he initially thought was a pinched nerve. He consulted with a chiropractor followed by a massage therapist/acupuncturist who recommended an MRI Exam. Upon having an MRI, it was discovered that the pinched nerve was being caused by a tumor. On his 32nd birthday, May 13, 1999, Schuldiner was diagnosed with a high-grade pontine glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer that invades the brainstem, and immediately underwent radiation therapy.

In October 1999, Schuldiner’s family announced that the tumor had necrotized and that he was on the way to recovery. In January 2000, Schuldiner underwent surgery to remove what remained of his tumor. The operation was a success. However, the Schuldiner family was struggling financially. The total costs of the operations came to $70,000, a price the Schuldiner family could not afford. Many fundraisers, auctions, and benefit concerts took place to help cover the costs. The money began to come in as the metal community, in total shock, realized that Schuldiner's life was in danger. The metal community and the Schuldiner family showed deep concern because Schuldiner could have lost his life due to lack of funds.

Schuldiner continued to work on his music, continuing his work with Control Denied. About two years after his original diagnosis, in May 2001, the cancer returned and Schuldiner fell ill again. He was originally denied surgery (which he needed immediately) due to lack of funds. A press release called for support from everyone, including fellow artists. Jane Schuldiner urged all who read the statements about Schuldiner and his illness to go out and get insurance, stating her frustration in the American healthcare system. Schuldiner had gotten medical insurance after his first surgery, but the insurer had refused to pay because the tumor existed before he had gotten the insurance. Many artists, including Kid Rock, Korn and Red Hot Chili Peppers, got together during the summer of 2001 to auction off personal items with the funds assisting Schuldiner's medical expenses, an effort covered by MTV.^[22] Matt Heafy, vocalist and guitarist for Trivium has also stated that the band had played a benefit show for Schuldiner while he was in the hospital in their days as a local band.^[23] Schuldiner received a chemotherapy drug called vincristine to help with his therapy. Like most drugs used in the treatment of cancer, the side effects were harsh and weakened Schuldiner greatly. In late October/early November, Schuldiner became ill with pneumonia.

Schuldiner died on December 13, 2001, at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.^[24] He was cremated^[25] and MTV reported that recording artists, including Mike Patton, Glen Benton, King Diamond, Ville Valo, Trey Azagthoth and Max Cavalera, along with all of the former and active members of Death, attended his memorial service.

Legacy[link]

With the assistance of Schuldiner's family, former manager Eric Greif handles his legacy as President of Perseverance Holdings Ltd. Jane and Beth Schuldiner frequently interact with Schuldiner's fans and both have stated many times that they enjoy his music. Greif keeps track of his recordings and handles Schuldiner's intellectual property. Beth Schuldiner has a son named Christopher Steele, who also plays guitar and has all of Schuldiner's guitars, BC Rich also released a statement in their 2008 catalog stating that Schuldiner's signature model Stealth will be available for purchase, and that endorsement is overseen by Steele.

Schuldiner had homes and two dogs in the area surrounding Orlando. Schuldiner built a studio inside the garage where many of his songs such as Crystal Mountain were inspired. Schuldiner's home office was the site of the Metal Crusade newsletter and fan club.

A legal battle began from the time of Schuldiner's death on the settlement of the rights to the partially completed second Control Denied album, When Man and Machine Collide. Demos of these unreleased Control Denied songs, as well as early Death demos and live Death recordings from 1990, were released in the Zero Tolerance two-part compilation bootlegs by the Dutch Hammerheart Holdings company and the Schuldiners and Greif asserted rights on behalf of Schuldiner's Estate. The matter was settled in November 2009, anticipating the project being finished and released in 2010.

Tribute concerts have been coordinated or funded by his mother, family and various Death tribute groups internationally. CKY front man, Deron Miller, who considers Schuldiner an idol of his, got the idea, while working on various projects with former Death guitarist (and pituitary tumor survivor) James Murphy, to do a tribute album. Murphy announced he would release a Chuck Schuldiner tribute album to commemorate his lasting mark on the metal community and Schuldiner's family publicly offered support for Murphy's effort, though it has never materialized. Schuldiner's sister Beth confirmed via her YouTube channel that Death: Live in Japan, a behind the scenes Death video, as well as a potential boxset containing all of Schuldiner's works including some exclusive copies of handwritten notes by Schuldiner are in the works via Relapse Records.^[26] Schuldiner Estate lawyer Eric Greif held a charity Chuck Schuldiner Birthday Bash in Calgary, Alberta, May 13, 2011 featuring speeches by Greif and former Death guitarist Paul Masvidal, as well as bands performing Schuldiner's music.^[27] Greif repeated this May 12, 2012, with special guest band Massacre, featuring former Death members Rick Rozz and Terry Butler.

The Book[link]

In January 2001, Mahyar Dean, a classically trained Iranian musician, wrote Death, a book about Death and Schuldiner and released it in Iran. The book includes bilingual lyrics and many articles about the band. The book was sent through the site keepers of emptywords.org to Schuldiner, who in his words was "truly blown away and extremely honored by the obvious work and devotion he put into bringing the book to life".^[28] The author of book later formed Angband.^[29]

Beliefs[link]

Schuldiner once described himself as "a lover of life", "friendship", and "animals".^[30] "I would like to live forever, if it was possible", he once said in an interview.^[30] He commonly spoke out against artists who were "out of control", garnering negative attention to the death metal scene. Schuldiner openly condemned and disavowed stereotypes of metal musicians as being harmful to animals, people, or being "anti-life".^[31]

When asked about his opinions regarding an afterlife, Schuldiner responded "I don't know", but elaborated that he believed "this is hell", and that demons are in people, as they "create evil".^{[32][dead link]} Although his parents are Jewish, Schuldiner did not go through any formal religious training. In the documentary, "666 At Calling Death", he was asked whether Satanism was a part of his music. He replied, "Not at all. I really don't want to involve any type of religious theme in our music. I think that's more of a personal thing. Yeah, I'm not a Satanist and I definitely don't put that into our music. No purpose. I was really young when the band first started out. I was never really into writing Satanic lyrics at all, personally. We did write gore lyrics, but it was more like kind of tongue-in-cheek, horror-movie type level. Nothing like encouraging people to go out and hurt themselves or anything stupid like that. It's pure fantasy-movie type, scary stuff. And then, I just really got into writing about reality, which is what we all have to deal with."^[33] Schuldiner designed the Death logo and its various incarnations during the length of his career. In 1991, before the release of Human, he cleaned up the logo taking out more intricate details and the "T" in the logo was swapped from an inverted cross to a more regular looking "T", one reason being to quash any implication of religion.^[34]

Schuldiner was also openly against hard drugs; he is quoted as saying, "I’ve tripped several times. That’s all because I don’t like the hard drugs. And my only drugs are alcohol and grass."^[35] Schuldiner also stated that he was pro-choice, stating that "It should be legal.".^[36]

Equipment[link]

Schuldiner's primary guitar throughout most of his career was the B.C. Rich Stealth model, an extremely rare model available only through the BC Rich custom shop until 2008, when it was released to the public as the Chuck Shuldiner Tribute Stealth. Prior to this, he used a BC Rich Mockingbird. Most of Schuldiner's sound came from a DiMarzio X2N pickup placed in the bridge. During the (In)Human Tour of the World (1991–92), Schuldiner briefly endorsed a small Wisconsin custom guitar company called Axxtra, who worked with him on designs, though he still insisted on using his BC Rich during filming of the Lack of Comprehension video in September 1991 in Orlando.

The amp he used towards the end of his career was a Marshall Valvestate (Model 8100) amp head and Valvestate 4x12 speaker cabinets on Individual Thought Patterns as well as the ITP tour, and eventually started using Marshall 1960 cabs. Before that he used various equipment including Randall RG100ES heads and Randall cabinets, and on the (In)Human Tour of the World he used a small GK 250ML miked up, despite having hollow 4x12 stacks 'for show'.

Discography[link]

Death

• 1987: Scream Bloody Gore
• 1988: Leprosy
• 1990: Spiritual Healing
• 1991: Human
• 1993: Individual Thought Patterns
• 1995: Symbolic
• 1998: The Sound of Perseverance

Control Denied

• 1999: The Fragile Art of Existence
• 2012: When Man and Machine Collide (Schuldiner's parts recorded in 2000-2001)

With Voodoocult

• 1994: Killer Patrol (Single)
• 1994: Metallized Kids (Single)
• 1994: Jesus Killing Machine (Full-length Album)

See also[link]

• Honorific nicknames in popular music

References[link]

Sources[link]

Emptywords.org

Geoff Hunt
Full name	Geoffrey Brian Hunt
Country	Australia
Residence	Doha, Qatar
Born	(1947-03-11) March 11, 1947 (age 65) Melbourne
Plays	Right Handed
Men's Singles
Highest ranking	1 (February 1976)
World Open	W (1976, 1977, 1979, 1980)
Last updated on: 20 December 2011.

Geoffrey Brian ("Geoff") Hunt, MBE (born 11 March 1947, in Melbourne, Australia), is a retired Australian squash player who is widely considered to be one of the greatest squash players in history.

He was ranked the World No.1 squash player from 1975 to 1980. He won the World Open title four times. He was the event's inaugural champion, winning the competition on the first four occasions it was held (1976, 1977, 1979 and 1980). He also won the International Amateur Individual Championship three times (1967, 1969, and 1971), and the British Open (which was considered to be the effective world championship event involving both amateurs and professionals before the World Open began) eight times between 1969 and 1981. Hunt won 178 of the 215 tournaments he contested during his career.

Hunt won the Australian Junior Championship in 1963, and he first won the Australian Amateur Men's Championship in 1965.

Hunt was known for having great determination. He ultimately suffered back problems, which curtailed his career.

After retiring as a player, Hunt served as the Head Squash Coach at the Australian Institute of Sport from 1985–2003, where he helped develop a new generation of Australian squash stars.

Hunt has been inducted into the World Squash Federation Hall of Fame and the Australian Sport Hall of Fame.

World Open final appearances[link]

British Open final appearances[link]

Books[link]

Geoff Hunt on Squash (London: Cassell) 1977.

External links[link]

• Page at squashpics.com
• Monash University alumni profile
• Geoff Hunt at Squash Info, Retrieved 20 Dec 2011

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2011)

Patrick Tull (28 July 1941 – 23 September 2006) was a British stage, film and television actor.

Early life and education[link]

This section requires expansion with: prose on education.

Tull was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England. His parents were Richard and Phillida Tull. His father was an Army officer and his mother an actor.

Career[link]

Film and television work[link]

Although never a regular cast member, Tull performed in a number of episodes of well-known BBC television series in the 1960s, including Z-Cars, and its spin-off Softly, Softly, the soap opera Crossroads and the comedy Dad's Army. He also was heard but not seen in an episode of Doctor Who.

Tull acted in three films including Parting Glances (1986), directed by Bill Sherwood.

Theatre work[link]

On Broadway, he was a founding member of Tony Randall's National Actors Theatre, and appeared in Getting Married by George Bernard Shaw.

Tull's off-Broadway credits include What the Butler Saw and The Art of Success at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the critically acclaimed Some Voices at the Greenwich Street Theatre.

He was a part of many productions in regional theatres throughout the U.S..

Tull received high praise for his work in the one-man play "The Hero of the Slocum", based on Eric Blau's account of the fire aboard the PS General Slocum, the greatest U.S. maritime disaster of the 20th century.

Narrator and reader[link]

Tull is the first of only two people – the other being Simon Vance – to have recorded the entire Aubrey-Maturin series of nautical historical novels by Patrick O'Brian in complete and unabridged form. O’Brian once expressed disapproval of a dramatic rendition of recorded novels (“To revert to my ideal reader: he would avoid obvious emotion, italics and exclamation marks like the plague – trying to put life into flat prose is as useful as flogging a dead horse”)^[1]. Many of Tull's listeners disagree. His lively dramatization of the characters, especially Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, and his comprehensive command of the dialects and tenor of the novels endeared him to many O’Brian fans.^[2]

He also narrated a number of television and documentary films including the seventeen-part series Sea Tales for the A&E television channel, some of which are available on DVD. He was also one of the most prolific narrators of recorded books in the U.S., featured on 104 productions.

In 2003, Tull performed in the world premiere of "Sydney the Sea Squid" for orchestra and narrator with music by Paul Stuart and text by Barbara Stewart with the Equinox Symphony Orchestra (with Stuart conducting) at the Rochester Institute of Technology, located in Rochester, New York.

In May 2005, Tull narrated the debut performance of jazz composer and trombonist Ron Westray's Chivalrous Misdemeanors (based on the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes) with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Personal life[link]

He was a long-term resident of New York City, New York, where he died on the morning on September 23, 2006 following a lengthy illness.

References[link]

1. ^ AudioFile Magazine "Author On Audio: Patrick O'Brian" June/July 1993
2. ^ Recorded Books "Tribute to Narrator Patrick Tull"

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Film portal
	Theatre portal
	Television portal

• List of British actors and actresses
• List of people from New York City
• List of voice actors

External links[link]

• Patrick Tull at the Internet Broadway Database
• Patrick Tull at the Internet Movie Database
• Patrick Tull at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Short biography.
• A short video of Patrick Tull reading from "The Reverse of the Medal" by Patrick O'Brian, 1998. on YouTube