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| Carl Llewellyn Weschcke | |
Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, chairman of Llewellyn Worldwide and a leader in New Age, metaphysical, self-help, and spirituality publishing, died on November 7. He was 85.
He was referred to by many as "the father of the New Age" because of his early sponsorship of astrology, magic, metaphysics, paganism, parapsychology, tantra, wicca and yoga. He and the company contributed to the burgeoning New Age movement in the 1960s and 1970s, sponsoring Gnosticon Festivals, opening an occult school and bookstore, and publishing the occult newspaper Gnostica. He is a former wiccan high priest and played a leading role in the rise of wicca and paganism during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, Weschcke helped organize the Council of American Witches and became its chairperson.
In addition to book publishing, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry, furniture manufacture and real estate management. He also co-authored 10 books with Dr. Joe Slate.
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Edward Soja, the "acclaimed urbanist and radical geographer," died November 2. He was 75. Verso noted that Mustafa Dikec, professor of Urban Studies at Ecole d'Urbanisme de Paris and LATTS, announced his passing on the Critical Geography listserv, calling Soja "one of the key figures associated with 'the spatial turn' in the 1980s, and his writings on space, spatial justice, and cities have inspired many since then. He will be sorely missed by his friends who knew his warm and generous personality." Verso celebrated Soja's life and work by sharing an extract from Postmodern Geographies: the Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory.