1 week ago
69
Books|Lesley Hazleton, Writer Who Tackled Religion and Fast Cars, Dies at 78
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/books/lesley-hazleton-dead.html
- U.S.
- World
- Business
- Arts
- Lifestyle
- Opinion
- Audio
- Games
- Cooking
- Wirecutter
- The Athletic
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Born in England and raised Jewish, she became agnostic, writing books about her own lack of faith, the prophet Muhammad and her time as a car columnist.
May 7, 2024, 4:37 p.m. ET
Lesley Hazleton, a British-born, secular Jewish psychologist turned journalist and author, whose curiosity about faith and religion led her to write biographies of Muhammad, Mary and Jezebel and examine her own passions in books about agnosticism and automobiles, died on April 29 at her home, a houseboat in Seattle. She was 78.
Ms. Hazleton announced her death herself, in an email that she scheduled to be sent to friends after she died. She had been diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer and chose to take her own life, as Washington State’s Death with Dignity Act allowed her to do legally, with the assistance of hospice volunteers.
“Yes, this is a goodbye letter,” she wrote, “which is difficult for me, because as many of you know, I’m lousy at saying goodbye.”
“I’ve been a pro-choice feminist for over six decades, so it should come as no surprise that I’ll be exercising choice in this, too,” she said, adding, “I’m experiencing an unexpected but wonderfully bearable lightness of being. Not a sad feeling of saying goodbye to life, but one of joy and amazement at how great it’s been. And of immense gratitude. I truly have had the time of my life. In fact, it sometimes feels like I’ve managed to live several lives in this one.”
Image
Ms. Hazleton was a formidable figure, with a deep, husky voice — care of Philip Morris, her friend Olivier D’hose said, noting her devotion to its tobacco products — and an appetite for physical and intellectual risk. She moved to Jerusalem in 1966, at age 20, and lived there through two wars and one peace treaty, working as a journalist for The Jerusalem Post and as a stringer for Time magazine.
