Thursday 4 August 2011

Rest in Peace, Jon Spence...

I cannot believe my eyes when I read Linda's email (dated two days ago but I didn't read it until just now).

Jon Spence, author of 'Becoming Jane Austen', the basic literature source for Becoming Jane the movie, had died at the end of July 2011. Forgive us for not knowing this earlier.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/austen-expert-the-best-of-company-20110729-1i4c1.html

The article stated that Mr Spence took his own life. While we will never know what actually happened, we thank Mr Spence for his ideas and thoughts that shaped our current knowledge about Jane Austen, and Tom Lefroy.

In all honesty, I don't think this site would exist without Jon spending his days and nights writing Becoming Jane Austen. In many ways, we owe him a lot.

Rest in peace, Jon...

Pic: Jon Spence, from the Sydney Morning Herald

1 comment:

danfan said...

Oh, Linda and Jane Austen fans in Australia, how deeply saddened I was to learn of Jon Spence's death when a Univ. of Georgia classmate of mine discovered the sad news and passed it along (only NOW, at Christmas, and many months after-the-fact).
He was the greatest of teachers and friends, and I will treasure the letters and memories I have of our friendship which lasted far beyond my time in his classroom. My heart breaks that my children, esp. my daughter Eleanor and son Daniel, in whom he took particular interest, will never have the opportunity to meet him.

Thank you for the lovely tribute to him and his work on BECOMING JANE, especially. I will miss him for the rest of my lifetime, but also thank him for introducing me to Jane Austen, who never disappoints.--Jemi Broussard, Concord, NH, USA.