I met Ellen Levine in person once after spending a good deal of time on the phone with her. We had a drink at a hotel before BEA in 2010. We talked a bit about her manuscript—which would become In Trouble—and, I suspect, about politics and bookmaking. During that conversation, and in the dozens of phone and email exchanges that followed, I got to know Ellen as the witty and wise  force of nature I suspect many others knew her to be.  And even when she told me she was had cancer, she seemed so indomitable  that it was difficult to imagine I wouldn’t have the chance to repeat that meeting (to say nothing of editing more of her books). But that’s not how life works.

Ellen passed away on Saturday after a nearly two-year battle with lung cancer. She is survived by her wife, Anne, her partner of more than 40 years. Please keep Ellen’s family in your thoughts.