Critic John Simon reportedly died at 94 on Sunday in Valhalla, N.Y. —
A search for Simon in this journal yields …
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Wednesday March 10, 2004 — m759 @ 4:07 AM “Language was no more than a collection of meaningless conventional signs, and life could absurdly end at any moment. He [Mallarmé] became aware, in Millan’s* words, ‘of the extremely fine line
separating absence and presence, being and nothingness, life and death, which later … he could place at the very centre of his work and make the cornerstone of his personal philosophy and his mature poetics.’ “ — John Simon, "Squaring the Circle" * A Throw of the Dice: The Life of Stéphane Mallarmé , by Gordon Millan |
See also Cornerstone.