Whitbread Recipient Christopher Nolan (43)

According to the BBC, Whitbread Recipient Christopher Nolan, the feisty Irish poet (Dam-Burst of Dreams, penned at 15) and novelist (Under the Eye of the Clock, The Banyan Tree) who refused to allow his lifelong disability to interfere with his aspirations, left us for the duration last month, dying in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital (from ingesting food into his airway).

Fittingly, Francis X. Clines, who witnessed Mr. Nolan and his so-called "unicorn stick" at work over two decades ago, opines in The New York Times: "Christy Nolan's life should have gone far longer. But there's no denying he made the most of it and told the tale beautifully before he departed. 'Can you credit all of the fuss that was made of a cripple?' goes the opening of Christy Nolan's story [Under the Eye of the Clock]. Well, we surely can."

Thus, in her moving tribute to the mute quadriplegic's talents and strengths, Irish President Mary McAleese surely does: "Christopher Nolan was a gifted writer who attained deserved success and acclaim throughout the world for his work, his achievements all the more remarkable given his daily battle with cerebral palsy . . . Christopher's indomitable courage and determination will be remembered along with his literary gifts, inspiring many generations to come."

Mr. Nolan, often compared favourably with James Joyce, saw writers the calibre of Margaret Drabble and John Carey champion his work long before his mother and caregiver, Bernadette, would deliver the then-21-year-old's Whitbread acceptance speech for one unforgettable first novel: "I want to shout with joy. My heart is full of gratitude . . . You all must realise that history is now in the making. Crippled man has taken his place on the world's literary stage."

R.I.P., Crippled Man.