Denis Dutton, Founder of Arts & Letters Daily, Dies

Haere ra, Dennis. Arts & Letters Daily is a tribute to tolerance, freedom of thought and clarity of expression. A&LD has been my homepage for years. Best wishes to your family and friends.

A brief memorial in appreciation of the sensitive intelligence of Denis Dutton, the web’s finest aggregator of literary reviews and essays, he wrote a helluva teaser. Dr. Dutton’s excellent taste in ideas made AL Daily my homepage and it was so sticky I spent an average of an hour a day reading articles he flagged. I will miss him dearly. He was truly a friend of the mind.

I’m stunned. At first, when I saw the site in all black, I thought there was something wrong with my computer. Would it were that (I just brought in my desktop after it was attacked by a virus). Denis was a true Renaissance man, bridging the Two Cultures and their various disciplines. It just seemed the man would go on and on like ALD. I met him when he was in California to promote his last book (he was originally from So Cal; his family had a bookstore that I think his brother was running). This is just terrible news. The continuation is vital and will be a memorial to his great insight and energy.

AL Daily has been my homepage for years, but only yesterday, after watching his recent TED talk, did I discover that Prof. Dutton was behind it. I read so many incredible articles thanks to him, and I hope the site will live on in his memory.

This is really sad. I cannot express my gratitude to Dr. Dutton for creating this website. It is my daily bread and butter. AL Daily is truly an indispensable part of internet and academic culture. May you rest in peace Dr. Dutton.

It is the home page of many of the world’s great intellects. I tell my students you must come here before you brush your teeth.

Dr. Dutton I treasure your brief stay at this party we call life and now that you have left us, I will remember this gift until I must leave.

ALdaily has been my home page since its beginning. The hand and guidance of Dr. Dutton will be truly missed but I am glad that his tradition of excellence will continue.

This is a sad day for the Web. Denis’s acute eye for articles, his wit and his compassion did much to turn ALD into the stand-out site that it is. My sympathy goes out to his family and friends.

Although I never knew Professor Dutton, his wit, his eye, his words, his finesse, his dedication to creating and producing Arts & Letters Daily has blessed my mind, my heart, and my life. His presence was a gift to so many.
Deepest sympathy to the Dutton family. God bless.

Kathleen Bingham

I have read Arts and Letters Daily for years. He also was the editor of Philosophy and Literature, the first journal that I published in after I graduated from my PhD program. He was a gentleman and a scholar.

Jeff Karon

Aldaily is a wonderful contribution to the intellect of the internet. It is a fitting memorial to its creator Prof. Dutton and, like all worthy monuments, will need to be maintained carefully and periodically in order to keep it in its most impressive condition.

Garreth Byrne

I came to know Denis through AL Daily. My deepest condolences to everyone over there.

The community of men and women for home A&LD is the only logical home (page) is the one to which I am pleased to belong, and I’m grateful to Denis Dutton for building this refuge and redoubt. Its imitators are many, but none offers scope, wit, and surprise in such happy profusion. It’s a daily lesson in how to be alive.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Ben Birnbaum

Haere ra, Prof Denis. Boy, were you on the button, Dutton! My homepage will continue to remind me of you. What a marvellous concept it was and its realisation continues to be, now as an extraordinary ever-embellished epitaph. I can’t think of a more contemplative, ‘living tombstone’. God bless you and your memory.

I am shocked and saddened by the news. I was lucky enough to meet him in D.C. during his book tour last year.

My condolences go out to his family.

Thank you, Mr. Dutton.

A decade ago, a person a did not really know very well at the time recommended me this website. Endless hours of e-discussions around Aldaily ensued, together with a marvellous friendship. I guess somehow I owe it to Mr Dutton, whose writing and sense of humor I always enjoyed. My condolences to his family, colleagues, friends, and students, who were so lucky to have him.

I am devastated. I’ve been visiting A&L Daily almost every day since it began.

I will deeply miss Mr. Dutton’s magisterial taste and tone – and his impish wit.

Sincere condolences to his family – and thank you to those who will continue his work.

I can only echo so much of the above: the shock, the fact that i have had ALD as my home page for many years since coming across a chance reference to it, the deep appreciation of Mr Dutton’s work, the real and immediate sense of a terrible loss, and, now, can add that reading these comments that so express what i would like to, i have found here a sense of commonality with people i would probably never meet.

Over that last 9-10 years, I’ve come to rely on ALDaily each time I felt the need to do a little CULTURE; in fact, opening the site is a reflex each time I am overwhelmed by noise and smallness, about once a week, give or take. No need for bookmarking the site anymore, here!

The great editorial selection and well summarized articles (which mislead me less than 1 in 10), are how I represent the attraction of ALDaily, to which I will certainly return for more of the same in the years to come. Evan, Tran and we, the readers, will make Denis content!

via fCh

AL daily has been my web page since soon after its creation. It has (and hopefully will continue to) provided me with a chance to expand my mind and understanding across a whole range of fields.

A few years ago I was attempting to run a one-day seminar for the local regional farmers and I rang Denis inviting him to be the ‘key note’ speaker – the next helf-hour proved to be the most hilarious telephone conversation I have ever taken part in – his quick wit and observations were hard to keep up with.

My sincere condolences to the family.

Haere ra to a truly outstanding man.

I knew Denis as an energetic and good-humoured New Zealand academic who not only established ALD – a constant source of new ideas (and bills from amazon after reading its book reviews!) – but also played a major role in the New Zealand Skeptics organization. His encouragement helped sustain my own research on NZ’s ‘satanic panic’ of the early 1990s. It is truly ironic that yesterday there was news of a significant breakthrough in the case of a wrongly convicted Christchurch childcare worker (news which would have delighted Denis) while today we read of his death. To be remembered always. Prof Mike Hill.

Condolences to Denis Dutton’s family. Aldaily has long been one of the best sources of hope for the continuation of intelligent life on the web. Thanks Denis!

My condolences to his family. RIP.
Irina Avtsin

I joined the society of ALDaily homepagers years ago and have recruited many a friend. I cannot but echo everyone else on this sad day but, by God, I’m grateful we had him.

Jeremy Bean

I have been a fan of A&LD since I first became aware of it a dozen years or so ago, and it has been my home page for a number of years. I have found great comfort in its eclecticism, and a high level of intellectual stimulus from it. I’m grateful to have this resource at my fingertips, and hope to continue to enjoy it for a long time to come. My sincerest condolences to Dr. Dutton’s family and to the rest of us who have enjoyed the fruit of his labor for so long.

Germán Moreno
Fort Worth, Texas

I learned about aldaily some years ago, oddly enough, from a book. It was in the introduction to The Shakespeare Wars, and the author (Ron Rosenbaum) mentioned the website as a favorite of his. I checked it out, and now, it is a favorite of mine. The articles gathered on aldaily are like nutrients for the mind: they do you good. So i consume at least one a day. with so much useless debris floating around the web, aldaily has been an oasis for anyone seeking something more thoughtful and substantial to occupy their time.

I remember once, on aldaily, I clicked on a link that took me to an article in the Chronicle Review. The article was locked behind a paywall. With many online publications now charging for content, I thought this was only inevitable for aldaily. About an hour later I came back to aldaily and the link had disappeared; it had been replaced with a link to another article. And about a week later, the link to the Chronicle Review article was back. I clicked on it; it had been freed from behind its paywall, made available for everyone to read.

I can’t thank Denis Dutton enough for the countless hours of fascinating reads he has guided me towards, and some others which he has quite literally unlocked for me — for us — I should say. I’ll be forever grateful to Denis Dutton, no matter what happens to aldaily now.

I’m a retired Teacher of English as FL in Italian Education. I’ve been using Arts & Letters Daily for years. I’m sorry about Prof Denis Dutton passing away. Please accept my sincere condolences.
Antonio Gallo

Too soon indeed! Prof. Dutton’s vision, marvellous selections and wonderful and enticing summaries have been artifacts of hope and insight for me. Like other commentors here, I visit A&L Daily almost daily! Prof. Dutton was kind enough to reply to me a few years ago when I sent a note of encouragement. I’m in high-tech sales, so not a typical Chronicle reader. The attributes of Prof. Dutton’s vision that are attractive to me are the breadth of A&L Daily’s coverage, the very high quality of the selections, the amazing compression of thought in the links, the lack of an obvious agenda, and at the same time a rootedness in the goodness of a point of view. We will miss you. Condolences to Dr. Dutton’s family and friends. Godspeed Dr. Dutton!

In the Los Angeles area, this loss is felt most sharply. We have lost too many Dutton’s. Condolences to Mr. Dutton’s family, friends, and colleagues. ALDaily has been a constant and valuable presence in my daily intellectual life more than any other single source I can think of for more than a decade.

ALDaily is my favourite website, and through it, I got to know about Mr Dutton and his other work. I’m very saddened. My condolences to his family and friends.

This has been my homepage for a long time…Dr Dutton’s creation will certainly be appreciated long after his passing. ALDaily is a page any lifelong learner should not be without. My sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

This is such sad news, for over 10 years now I have had Arts and Letters Daily as my homepage, and have been an admirer if Dennis Dutton’s work on it. He even responded to emails. What a great man he was.Condolences to his family.

Mr Dutton’s site has been my homepage for years, the best tug against the trivia. Condolences to his family and friends.

jenniferrobin – dec.30 2010 my sympathy and thoughts to Dr Dutton’s family. When teaching at massey University NZ in 1998 a colleague introduced me to an “amazing new website” – it has been my favourite ever since. DD’s book illustrates the true Renaissance man he was. It’s a sad day for everyone.

Great loss; great site. Long may it thrive.

My deepest sympathy to the Dutton family. ALDaily will be one of Dr. Dutton’s legacies. It is truly an oasis in the oceans of media information. I am grateful to him for that.

C R Kalahiki
Hawaii

A&LD has been my home page for some years. I can be assured of an article of interest daily. For some reason I sensed Professor Dutton had an allegiance to the antipodes. And reading his obit- I was correct.

Jane Morley
Australia

Arts and Letters Daily has been my homepage for years, and it’s simply the best thing on the internet. Professor Dutton must have been a remarkable man. We can only hope that his creation will live on and continue to be a source of inspiration, humor, and creative thought.

Thank you, Professor Dutton.

Professor Dutton has re-created the tradition of the literary-intellectual salon
adapting it to our time,
following the maxim expressed by the brilliant Roman intellectual and poet of the Augustan Age, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace):
“aut prodesse … aut delectare … aut simul et iucunda et idonea dicere vitae”
(to either benefit or delight us, or, at one and the same time, to speak words that are both pleasing and useful for our lives).

So to Professor Dutton and his work, ALDAILY, definitely the Horation dictum has to be applied:
“Exegí monuméntum aere perénnius”
(I have made a monument more lasting than bronze)

Condolences to his family and friends – from the bottom of my heart.

L. G.
Germany

We are all bereft! A&L Daily has been my homepage ever since I discovered it 6 years ago. I can’t imaging beginning my day without it – especially because it’s so difficult to get something besides weather, gossip, and hahahahahahaha on the boob tube! Professor Dutton has set a marvelously high standard for those who promise to maintain this service, and for others to aspire. My prayers for his loved ones – your loss is great.

The best website ever.

So very sad. Will miss his laconic wit and incisive intelligence.

Rachel Toor

As an American living abroad in a non-English speaking country, ALD is manna from heaven. It has kept my intellectual life alive at a time when it had very little stimulation. It has also reminded me of ideas I hadn’t entertained since college and re-introduced me to ideas I too-hastily avoided at that time as well.

At every moment, Mr. Dutton’s personality shone through in his editorial choices and in his witty, succinct blurbs. From that scant information, I deduced that he was the sort of person I wouldn’t have minded sitting next to at a dinner party–no mean feat.

Now I am saddened to know that my dinner party-fantasy will never come to pass.

The content of the web reflects every aspect of the psyche, good and bad. I always felt that when I visited this site, I was experiencing our better nature. I have no doubt that was in large part due to the influence of Mr. Dutton, and though I will certainly miss that influence, I hope that the web site continues to live on.

My deepest condolences to his family. He made positive contribution to the web with ALD and I am thankful for that.

For years, ALDaily was the best site on the internet, and over tine Dutton’s selections had a significant effect on how I viewed the world.

We are planning a visit to the South Island and I had intended to try to meet Professor Dutton to thank him for creating and sustaining this invaluable site. It’s very sad that I now can’t. It’s a compensation of sorts to learn how many others felt the same way. God rest his soul.

My deepest condolences from Spain. I read weekly Arts & Letters Daily, and appreciate your work.

Deepest condolences from Jerusalem Israel. I’ve been a keen reader of the wise and diversive collection of articles in Art & Letters for years. As my favorite website and I’m gratefull to its founder and will cherish his memory, with hope that his heritage of intelligent choices continues.

Dennis Dutton was my lecturer at Canterbury university for 5 yrs, 1998-2003, for my major in Art Theory [a passion of Dennis's, and a course no longer run, due to funding cuts]. Both my favourite lecturers are now dead…the other, John Beard, was a self-described “burnt out ex-hippie”, another contrarian mind, and someone Dennis will have gotten along with. I never told Dennis this, as I was warned not to [as it may inflate his ego]; but he remains the only person I’ve spent time with, who I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt; was a genius. The real deal. I also loved his warmth, humour, integrity, and contrarian nature. I’m even lucky enough to have seen a rant of his; after someone made an inappropriate [too soon] joke; following 9/11. I’ve seen his many moods, and have long held him as an example of what humanity can achieve, at it’s best. His energy, passion, fairness [he would never cut-down a nonestablished-hence vulnerable, artist] and intellect were amazing. Some found him intimidating, but to me; he’ll always be a big opinionated [and usually right] teddy bear. I miss him more than anyone will know.

Zaron Marshall.

One from faraway India and avid fan of and a daily visitor to Arts & Letters Daily, I salute its Visionary Founder Professor Denis Dutton. As Zaron Marshall put it, I miss him more than anyone will know.

Innamburan
India

Denis Dutton was a well favored guest on Radio Curious in July 2009. You are welcome to listen in on our half-hour conversation at http://www.radiocurious.org/2009/page/2/. Scroll down to the 5th interview. Denis and I were Junior High School colleagues in North Hollywood, California. We will miss him.
Barry Vogel,
Radio Curious
Ukiah, California

Living in Italy as a German citizen, I made Arts & Letters Daily my homepage ever since I stumbled into it . It made me love Internet for its possibilities, and I used your website with gratitude. Reading now about Prof. Dutton, I am struck with his example, with his capacity to move and trigger thought in infinite ways while not being exactly tuned into academe’s mainstreams.
My deep condolence to his family and to all who are now deprived of his presence.