Author Michael Schumacher, who wrote the biographies of Francis Ford Coppola and Eric Clapton, has died at the age of 75.
His daughter, Emily Joy Schumacher, confirmed on Monday that her father had died on December 29. She did not provide a cause of death.
Emily said: ‘My dad was a very generous person with people. He loved people. He loved talking to people. He loved listening to people. He loved stories.
‘When I think of my dad, I think of him engaged in conversation, coffee in his hand and his notebook.’
Michael’s books include Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker’s Life; Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton; and Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg, the influential Beat Generation poet.
Michael Schumacher, acclaimed author of Francis Ford Coppola and Eric Clapton has sadly died aged 75
He chronicled sports and comics history, wrote Mr Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers & the Birth of the NBA and Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics.
Michael was born in Kansas but spent most of his life in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
He studied political science at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside but his daughter said he left there juset one credit short of graduating.
Schumacher also wrote extensively about maritime disasters.
Emily described her father as ‘a history person’ and ‘a good human’.
She said he worked longhand, filling countless flip notebooks and later transcribing them on a typewriter. She said she still remembers the sound of the keys clacking.
Adding: ‘My dad was a very generous person with people. He loved people. He loved talking to people. He loved listening to people. He loved stories.
‘When I think of my dad, I think of him engaged in conversation, coffee in his hand and his notebook.’
