His landscape has folded the last time

April 5, 2020 1:30 PM

The inimitable, literary polymath Tim Robinson died from C-19, just two weeks after his wife. His books on the Connemara are beloved and deep.

Author of several books about both the Connemara region, and the Aran Islands, Tim Robinson had a "restless intelligence" (to quote one review). He learned Gaelic, then learned about the people, their myths and stories, their geography and geology. His maps are more than maps, they convey the history of place names, past geologic events, and hidden stories.Some of his books are still in print, but his company Folding Landscapes has no current website. There's a lovely interview with him on YouTube. He's exactly as I remember him - I got to meet him in Roundstone one time, and he was kind, generous with his time, and signed a folding map of his I had brought with me.
His loss saddens me in ways I don't understand yet.

posted by dbmcd (16 comments total)

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posted by Silvery Fish at 1:50 PM on April 5, 2020

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posted by Fizz at 1:54 PM on April 5, 2020

Oh dang! I meant to link to the interview.
posted by dbmcd at 2:11 PM on April 5, 2020

Thank you for posting. I am only learning about the Robinsons after their passing, but I am grateful that I can. A Robinson quote via a 2012 essay by Eamonn Wall:

... while walking the land, I am the pen on the paper; while drawing this map, my pen is myself walking the land. The purpose of this identification was to short circuit the polarities of objectivity and subjectivity, and help me keep faith with reality.

posted by spamandkimchi at 2:16 PM on April 5, 2020 [6 favorites]

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posted by carbide at 2:50 PM on April 5, 2020

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His “Stones of Aran” books are so personal and evocative of that particular landscape in a way that’s impossible to understand if you haven’t set foot on Inis Mor.
posted by rikschell at 2:56 PM on April 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

I had not heard of him, now I want to read his books. I have been to Inis Mor so can appreciate what he describes. It is a bleak and beautiful place with so much history and atmosphere and the Irish language is heard everywhere.
posted by mermayd at 3:13 PM on April 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

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posted by gudrun at 3:49 PM on April 5, 2020

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posted by annieb at 3:53 PM on April 5, 2020

This is a blow. I read The Stones of Aran whilst honeymooning on Inishmaan and became an ardent fan. There are few people who can make the bones of the earth sing the way that he does. What a loss.
posted by freya_lamb at 4:52 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

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posted by lalochezia at 4:54 PM on April 5, 2020

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posted by allthinky at 5:12 PM on April 5, 2020

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I bought connemara: listening to the wind a few years ago when visiting that part of Ireland. Such a lovely writer.
posted by jilloftrades at 6:41 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

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posted by Long Way To Go at 6:54 PM on April 5, 2020

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posted by filtergik at 4:40 AM on April 6, 2020

I remember using his map of the Burren on a trip there more than 40 years ago. I'm still amazed at the level of detail and all the varied information he managed to fit into it.
posted by Azara at 3:18 AM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]