Writer

In the literary maelstrom that is New York, in the smaller but eddying currents of that wordy whirlpool that is Philadelphia, and in the what's-it-to-you tide pool that is 16th and Moore, South Philly, they know Tonelli's name. Now it's your turn. Bill Tonelli, 49 - writer, magazine editor, and local boy made good - is the editor of The Italian American Reader, the new William Morrow hardback collection of poems, essays and fiction by 63 authors from Don DeLillo to Dana Gioia, Gay Talese to Evan Hunter (formerly Salvatore Lombino)

It had to be in Philadelphia. The producers of Tanya Hamilton's love story set against the decline of the Black Panther movement, "Night Catches Us," wanted the Northern Liberties-based director to switch the locale of her story from Philly to New York City. Hamilton declined. Philadelphia's history of tension between cops and African-Americans is integral to the fabric of Hamilton's story, of an ex-Panther (Anthony Mackie) connecting with a single mom (Kerry Washington) after a four-year exile.

Harry Crews, 76, an author best known for his gritty tales of the rural South, died Wednesday in Gainesville, Fla. He had suffered from neuropathy, said his ex-wife, Sally Ellis Crews. Mr. Crews, author of 17 novels and numerous short stories, also taught graduate and undergraduate fiction-writing workshops at the University of Florida from 1968 until he retired in 1997. In a 1992 interview, he said about writing: "If you're gonna write, for God in heaven's sake, try to get naked.

Lilian Jackson Braun, 97, who wrote 29 books in the The Cat Who. . . mystery series, died Saturday in Landrum, S.C. Ms. Braun almost quit writing after the third book was published because popular tastes had changed so much. She took an 18-year hiatus between The Cat Who Turned On and Off and The Cat Who Saw Red , published in 1986. She resumed because her husband, Earl Bettinger, encouraged her to return to writing after she retired in 1984 from the Detroit Free Press, where she worked for 30 years.

Reginald Rose, 81, who was best known for the movie 12 Angry Men and was one of the leading writers from the 1950s "Golden Age" of television, has died. Mr. Rose, who died Friday at Norwalk Hospital, was known for his willingness to write about social and political issues. He won a drama-writing Emmy Award in 1954 for the Studio One original TV version of 12 Angry Men, the story of one man swaying a jury debating the fate of a young man charged with killing his father. Mr. Rose received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of the 1957 movie version, which he coproduced with the film's star, Henry Fonda.

John J. Ryan Jr., 71, of Audubon, an editor with Stars and Stripes during the Korean War who subsequently edited and wrote for publications in New England, California and the Delaware Valley, died Tuesday at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden. Mr. Ryan piloted B-17 and B-24 bombers and did public relations work for the 44th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force during World War II. His public relations publications included illustrated booklets on the Trolley Missions, bombing runs made by the 44th Bomb Group over Northern Europe during World War II. After the Korean War, Mr. Ryan worked for the Springfield Daily News and the Holyoke Daily Transcript, both in Massachusetts, and later founded the Yankee Flyer newspaper for the Westover Air Force Base in Westover, Mass.

Jack Lloyd, a quiet, easygoing features and entertainment writer for the Inquirer who enjoyed sailing on the Chesapeake Bay and vacations in the Southwest, died Sunday of a heart attack. He was 66 and lived in the Bella Vista section of South Philadelphia for 16 years. Lloyd joined the Inquirer as a rewrite man in 1966 and began writing entertainment reviews and features there a few years later. He retired three years ago. Despite his failing sight due to glaucoma, he continued writing free-lance articles in the Weekend Section on entertainment at Atlantic City casinos and clubs until his death.

"Permanent Midnight" is the true story of a successful situation comedy writer, Jerry Stahl, whose addictions to heroin and assorted pills cost him his job, his wife and his child before he checked himself into rehab, cleaned up and wrote his memoirs. In its outlines, it's a story the movies have told many times, from Otto Preminger's pioneering "The Man With the Golden Arm" in 1955 to Ivan Passer's excellent, underrated "Born to Win" of 1971. Still, it never seems to lose its fascination - perhaps because there is as much secret voluptuousness in the spectacle of one man's surrender to pure pleasure and appetite as there is moral instruction.

Stephen M. Mason, 77, began his Monday like any other. He got the paper, filled the bird feeders and talked to neighbors. Then he went into the bedroom of the split level in Berwyn where he had lived for the last 35 years and began reading. That was where he was found, with the Reader's Digest in his hand, said his wife, Charlotte. He was pronounced dead later at Paoli Memorial Hospital. "He was the best friend I had in the world and he is gone," Charlotte Mason said. "He had a very bad heart, and the doctor said he could not take a bypass or a heart operation.

Marion Benasutti, 84, a daughter of Italian immigrants who learned English in grade school and later mastered it to become an accomplished writer, died yesterday at St. Joseph's Manor in Huntingdon Valley. A highly regarded editor, short-story writer and journalist, Mrs. Benasutti never graduated from high school or college. Yet, her warm reminiscences of life's humble, important moments attracted the attention of publishers and readers all over the world. Her work appeared in Readers' Digest, McCall's, Mademoiselle, Redbook, Seventeen, the Literary Review, American Home, Inquirer Magazine and elsewhere.