Saying goodbye to Russ

SA4QE was honoured to be invited to the funeral of Russell Hoban in London last Wednesday, along with a number of Russ's associates, fans from the online community The Kraken and of course family and friends.

The service took place at Mortlake Crematorium, right on the banks of the River Thames. The weather was appropriate, turning Russ's favourite grey and rainy as the mourners gathered.

The chapel was light and peaceful. The order of service was printed on folded sheets of yellow A4 paper, with a lovely photo of Russ on the front, dressed - one must say atypically - in a shirt and tie, with a Panama hat and cane, looking very happy.

Underneath the photo it read:

Russell Conwell Hoban
4 February 1925 - 13 December 2011
I tell you what I have paid years to learn: everything that is found is always lost again, and nothing that is found is ever lost again. Can you understand that?

This most appropriate quote is from The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz and has been chosen by SA4QE contributors a number of times.

Mortlake Crematorium

Inside the order of service were a quote from Joseph Conrad's Youth, another from AE Housman's Fancy's Knell and a haiku by Bashō. On the back of the service was an illustration by Caspar David Friedrich of a large mournful owl atop a coffin about to be interred.

Russ's coffin, made in wickerwork and laden with pink roses, iris and small yellow flowers, was borne into the chapel and the service started with a period of silence followed by Haydn's Die Schöpfung: Im Anfange schuf Gott Himmel und Erde, a piece which starts off quietly and suddenly blasts into life:

There was no minister. The eulogy was given by Dominic Power, an old friend of Russ's who has a walk-on part in several of his later books as "Seamus Flannery". Russ's son Jake Hoban then took the stand. "This was written by my dad in 1989," he said by way of introduction to a short piece called North from The Moment under The Moment. The vivid, wintry piece is not about the north of England but

the north where one goes in fear, the north that the compass cannot find, the north that is the cold and implacable truth from which one doesn't always return.

Later Jake said he chose it partly because it includes some themes developed in Russ's new book Soonchild due to be published in March.

Russ's eldest daughter from his first marriage Phoebe Hoban then read an appreciation of her father and his work. Her brother Brom then produced two sheets of yellow A4 and recited the Kaddish (echoing his and his father's Jewish upbringing), which Brom described as "a request for peace", and a poem of his own composition inspired by watching, when a child, his father paint a canvas called The Boxer. (Russell Hoban was a professional graphic artist at the time of Brom's childhood; there is more information on this period of his career in Chris Bell's excellent blog post from July 2011.)

The service closed with another piece from Haydn's Die Schöpfung, Holde Gattin, dir zu Seite - both pieces were chosen by Russ himself:

After the service we walked the short distance along the Thames towpath to The Ship, a lovely old pub also overlooking the river.

The wake was very pleasant and the family endlessly hospitable and it was great to be able to chat to old Kraken friends, SA4QE contributors and other people who knew and loved Russ. 

Phoebe Hoban with SA4QE contributors Eli Bishop (right) and Richard Cooper

The Kraken were among the last to leave; we stayed about three hours. It was a great privilege to be there and see Russ off and we would like to take this opportunity again to thank the family for inviting us. All of us at SA4QE and The Kraken will miss Russ terribly, while of course remembering the many, many hours of pleasure he and his writing gave us all.

Photos by Roland Clare and Richard Cooper

Read the messages posted to the SA4QE Book of Condolence

Update 8/1/12: This report has been edited to remove some content at the request of a mourner. SA4QE apologises wholeheartedly for any insensitivity that may have been implied by reporting on this event.