Many a lot of you didn’t hear about Anthony Horton’s death. Probably most of you don’t know who he is.
Anthony Horton spent the last thirty years living underground in New York City’s subway tunnels. Sunday he died in a fire in the subway tunnels and investigators found his body in a couple of rooms which he had turned into an apartment of sorts, with a living room and a bedroom and bookshelves on the walls (and books!). He was an artist who had painted murals and other artwork in the tunnels, art that very few people ever saw.
Anthony Horton is also co-author of a young adult graphic novel, Pitch Black, by Youme Landowne and Anthony Horton. It is the true story of Anthony’s life as a homeless man and an underground artist. As such, he is part of the young adult writer world. So Iwanted to write a short tribute to him, and to his work as a writer and artist, and to making others aware of the plight of the homeless. May he rest in peace.
When I was eighteen or nineteen, my then boyfriend gave me a children’s book called Never Satisfied as a gift. On each page of the book, the narrator keeps complaining to his friend that “nothing ever happens around here.” Meanwhile, in the background, the readers watch as somebody starts throwing animals and furniture–a couch, a piano–out of the second story window of a building. The narrator never gets it, never sees all the exciting things happening all around him. Rather, he just keeps complaining that life is boring. I got the gentle message that Tommy was sending, that I was so focused on the life I *wanted*, on my goals and dreams, that I never got around to appreciating the life I already had.
