Subject: (urth) gene wolfe's parents

From: turin <turin at hell.com>
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 22:47:01 +0000

did gene wolfe lose his parents at an early age.  on his blog william gibson writes

Gene Wolfe once said that being an only child whose parents are dead is like being the sole survivor of drowned Atlantis. There was a whole civilization there, an entire continent, but it's gone. And you alone remember. That's my story too, my father having died when I was six, my mother when I was eighteen. Brian Aldiss believes that if you look at the life of any novelist, you'll find an early traumatic break, and mine seems no exception. 

Does anyone know where this is form or who he is talking about?

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From: Tony Ellis <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 11:22:49 +0000

Turin wrote
> Gene Wolfe once said that being an only child whose parents 
> are dead is like being the sole survivor of drowned Atlantis. 
> There was a whole civilization there, an entire continent, 
> but it's gone. And you alone remember.

<snip>

> Does anyone know where this is form or who he is talking 

In the essay 'Where I get my ideas from' collected in Castle of the
Otter, Wolfe writes (movingly, for me):

The horrible thing has happened. Father and Mother are dead... Where is
the little house where Boots stretched before the gas fire, where Mother
sat crocheting... Where is lost Atlantis? Lost in the dust. And only I
am left to tell you.

It sounds as if Gibson was thinking of this - although Wolfe might have
used the same image elsewhere.

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From: mournings glory <mourningsglory at hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 12:36:32 +0000

>did gene wolfe lose his parents at an early age.

No.

Wolfe was 42 when his father died in 1973; 46 when his mother passed over in 
1977.

msg