Open Letters Monthly notes the death of indefatigable author and best-selling novelist Colleen McCullough, whose immense second novel, The Thorn Birds, has brought absorbed pleasure to countless readers in the near half-century since its publication in 1977. Throughout a career spanning forty years and over 20 books, she epitomized the lure of authorship at its most shining: the selling of millions of books without having even the smallest shred of literary ability. Her own serenity on the point (and on all other points) was undauntable, and time has vindicated her - The Thorn Birds sells on and on. May its author rest in peace.