Sad news. Mystery author James Sallis: R.I.P.. My love and sympathy go out to Jim's wife Karyn, his family, and friends. Rest in peace, Jim!
Soho Press is grieved to announce the death of author James Sallis, who passed away on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, peacefully, with his wife, Karyn, by his side, after a long illness. No funeral is planned. If you feel moved to donate in his memory, the family suggests the ACLU or the Humane Society as worthy charities that Jim valued. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother (the philosopher John Sallis), and his son, Dylan. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Karyn.
In many ways Jim was the platonic ideal of what a writer can be, though he probably would not like it put thus. As an artist the work was everything to Jim, and he worked without boundaries or careerism. Perhaps best known for his existentialist crime fiction and neo-noirs like Drive, which was adapted by Nicolas Winding Refn into the Ryan Gosling-led film of the same name, Jim was also a poet, musicologist, literary historian, critic, editor and teacher.
His career began writing science fiction for publications edited by the likes of Damon Knight and Harlan Ellison, who was an ardent fan of Sallis and championed his work in the 1960s and ’70s. At this time Jim helped edit the influential New Worlds publication under the direction of Michael Moorcock.
As a reader and appreciator of culture, Jim was as curious and uninhibited as he was as a writer. It was a joy to talk about art in all forms with him, but his grand view of literature matched his personal approach to craft. To Jim it didn’t matter where or how good work came into existence, or how it was shelved. His groundbreaking collection of short biographical work on Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Chester Himes, collected as Difficult Lives Hitching Rides, had no critical precedent and helped usher in a new era of appraisal for now legendary writers who at the time were nearly or totally out of print. He collected and played with alacrity an impressive number of string instruments and his love of the blues and jazz was lifelong.
Jim wrote without cynicism about the strength of the human spirit and invested dignity into all his characters, no matter how far on the edge of society they live—characters like P.I. Lew Griffin, Sheriff Sarah Jane and a man known simply as “Driver.” He knew that good fiction was to be set against the faults of society but also serves to remind us that salvation is the realm of the individual.
We mourn his passing deeply but find joy in the notion that his work will be read for as long as there are books.
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