Tom Robbins (1932-2024)
Author Tom Robbins, 92, died February 9, 2024 at home in La Conner WA. Robbins was best known for his absurdist, irreverent novels, which inspired a devoted cult following and included numerous bestsellers. While his work was rooted in 1960s counterculture, he had a devoted readership that spanned generations.
Most of his works had speculative (or absurdist) elements, among them Another Roadside Attraction (1971), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), Still Life with Woodpecker (1980), Jitterbug Perfume (1984), Skinny Legs and All (1990), Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994), Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000), Villa Incognito (2003), and B Is for Beer (2009).
Thomas Eugene Robbins was born July 22, 1932 in Blowing Rock NC and grew up there and in Virginia. He attended Washington and Lee University to study journalism, but dropped out in his sophomore year. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1953 (to avoid being drafted into the Army), serving in Korea and Nebraska before being discharged in 1957. He enrolled at Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), an art school in Richmond VA that later became Virginia Commonwealth University. While there, he was an editor and columnist for the school paper and wrote for the sports desk of the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper; after graduating in 1959, he became a copyeditor there.
In the ‘60s, Robbins relocated to Seattle to study for a master’s degree at the Far East Institute of the University of Washington and worked as an art critic for the Seattle Times. He was also a freelance journalist and hosted an alternative radio show, Notes from the Underground.
In the mid-‘60s, Robbins became serious about writing fiction. He settled in La Conner WA in 1970, where he spent the rest of his career, producing novels and magazine features, plus essay collection Wild Ducks Flying Backward (2005) and memoir Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life (2014).
Robbins was married and divorced three times and is survived by his fourth wife, Alexa D’Avalon, married 1994. Other survivors include his son, SF/fantasy editor Fleetwood Robbins; two other sons; and a grandson.
