Julius Schwartz updates

Posted By: Glenn HaumanPosted On:

Julie Schwartz is back in the hospital after taking a fall at home last week. Cousin Harlan reports:

HARLAN ELLISON

– Wednesday, January 21 2004 18:48:56

Julie is, as I reported, back in Winthrop Hospital. As bad as the last interlude was, this one may be worse. He fell, early (very early) Thursday morning, MedicAlert called Andrea (grand-daughter) and reported they were getting no response from him. He was ambulanced to the hospital, and was in emergency till Saturday. He’s now in a private room and Andrea told me he is “very confused.” She sounded properly worried. He’s seriously disoriented, woozy, at a loss for where he is, etcetera. His sodium level was very low, and the doctors think that may account for it; but that’s a prelim evaluation.

This will get worse before it gets better, but one thing is now for sure, and it’s the eventuality most of us have long been dreading. He cannot live alone, on his own, any more. I’ll keep you informed — I haven’t called him in his “fuzzy” condition, he likely wouldn’t be able to respond — but my fear is great. Since the death of his wife, Julie has lived self-sufficiently. He values his independence mightily.

The days ahead will be taxing.

Paul Kupperberg updates via email on Thursday:

“I’m happy to say that I just spoke to him (1:45 PM-ish) and he sounded like his usual cantankerous old self, if not sick and tired of being sick and tired. (Part of the reason for reported the fuzziness and confusion MAY have been due to the fact that he had, for reasons not known, experienced an 85% hearing loss yesterday; as of today, he’s back up to 85% of his hearing.) He says his docs think he’ll be able to go home (that is, to his grandson’s home) in the next few days.

“Julie’s always held a special place in the hearts of those of us who have worked with and known him. He’s not only a living legend but a force of nature… although I guess at 88, even a force of nature sometimes needs our prayers and good thoughts.”

Mark Evanier has put up an email address at schwartz@newsfromme.com to collect notes from well-wishers. One assumes, if you are a pretty girl, that pictures of smiles will also be appreciated.

11 comments on “Julius Schwartz updates”

  3. I’m happy to hear that Mister Schwartz is doing well. He’s one of the greats in science fiction and comic books that will always be a legend in my eyes. In fact, I remember a Superman comic book that celebrated his birthday. I believe it was in 1984. But I can blab all day about comic books. Anyway, my family and I will be keeping Mister Schwartz in our thoughts. We are overjoyed about his recovery.

    JHL

  5. I’ve come to believe that may be some sort of bacteria making the rounds that’s affecting people’s ears. Both Robin and I have had ear problems this week, and when I was visiting Dave Cockrum his left ear suddenly went funny (but seemed to reverse itself about 10 minutes later). I’ve heard other complaints too. Dunno if it’s the unusual cold or a flu symptom that comes bundled with everything else in this killer season or what… doesn’t seem to be anything about it in the news, so I guess at this point it’s anecdotal.

  6. We are lucky that Julie didn’t break anything…as an OR nurse, I can’t tell you how common hip fractures resulting from falls are in people in Julie’s age bracket. And the complications resulting from hip fractures of people of Julie’s age bracket are serious and can be extremely life-threatening, especially in a case like Julie’s, in which someone has recently suffered a bout of pnuemonia.

    There can be lots of reasons for Julie’s fall, btw, not the least of which being some blood chemistry being “off,” but from a reading of his “s & s” above, it could have been a TIA, or “transischemic attack”…sometimes termed a “mini-stroke”–Again, not all that uncommon in Julie’s age bracket, folks. And usually, the effects of a TIA reverse themselves.

    Mindy

  7. I sent a message to the address Mark Evanier provided. Hope Mark doesn’t think it’s too long.

    Julie Schwartz was editing most of the big guns at DC when I started collecting super-hero comics back in 1973-74: Superman, Batman, The Flash, Justice League of America… When I started reading about the creation of the Silver Age versions of the Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom and others, Julie’s name was always there. I met him at a con once, but it was one of those chance, “Hey, it’s Julius Schwartz!” moments and he was gone before I had a chance to say anything (I had a similar thing happen with Isaac Asimov once). I always hoped to get to meet him again, so I could thank him for all the great comics he oversaw (Denny O’Neil may have written “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” in Batman 251, and Neal Adams may have drawn it, but Julie was the man who hired them to do it–that was my first Batman comic in four years, and really blew me away at the time). So I tried to express that in my e-mail earlier tonight, along with my wishes for him to be up and around soon.

    Anyone who read a Bat-book between 1964 and 1980, anyone who fondly remembers Green Lantern-Green Arrow, anyone who used to eagerly await the summer JLA-JSA teamups, anyone who read Superman between 1971 and 1986, should send Julie their best wishes and thank him for what he gave us.

    Paul

  8. One assumes, if you are a pretty girl, that pictures of smiles will also be appreciated.

    Just make sure we keep it PG folks. We don’t want to send him to the hospital again. 🙂

  9. I just want to tell a quick story about the only time I met Mr. Schwartz.

    It was at a MarCon in Columbus, OH about eight years ago. He was doing an autograph signing and had a very attractive young lady sitting next to him. I handed over a book for him to sign and as he was signing he very gruffly asked me what I did for a living.

    I mentioned that I worked across the street at the main headquarters of a large insurance company.

    He perked up a bit. “Oh, yeah? Say, can you get a job for her?” He asked, pointing at the girl next to him. “She needs a job and that’ll do. What can you do about getting her a job?”

    I mumbled something about not being a position to do help in any hiring.

    “Well, why not?! Check into it and let me know.”

    So I spent the rest of the weekend avoiding Mr. Schwartz so I wouldn’t have to report on the “job-hunting.”

    –Dale

  10. What more can you do to someone like this than to wish them well?

    I’ve actually been fortunate enough to be in Mr. Schwartz’s presence at a few Dragon*Cons. One year I even offered him some jambalaya that the VIP suite people had made…and then when I mentioned sausage, he gently shook his head. (Forgot it completely. Jewish…sausage…pork…duh.) He was an exceptional, graceful person every time I saw him.

    But what could I say to him except, “Thanks for doing such a great job with the fictional heroes I still admire?” And adding, of course, “Get well soon.”

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