Novelist, comic book writer, trans activist, and Tarot expert Rachel Pollack has died at the age of 77. Seven years ago, the groundbreaking writer was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She passed late last week in New York.
Pollack’s fans and admirers had many routes to her work. Some know her best as a writer on Doom Patrol, for which she created the character Kate Godwin, who The Guardian describes as “considered to be the first transgender superhero in mainstream comics.” Her friend Neil Gaiman told The Guardian, “I think it’s only recently that Rachel’s work on Doom Patrol has been reassessed and seen as genuinely ahead of its time, and it’s about time, too.”
In a May 2022 interview with The Comics Journal, Pollack said:
I enjoyed doing it and I thought it was good stuff but then it was gone and I’ve moved on. And then I was invited to a transgender literary conference and to be a keynote speaker – which was great. When I got there, it turned out I was a hero. Because of Doom Patrol. There was a whole generation of young transgender and queer cartoonists who saw that storyline and Kate as this great inspiration. That was a wonderful experience discovering this. I’m sort of glad I didn’t know it was happening. I’m glad I was surprised by this. It was nice.
She was also the author of seven novels and many short stories. Her novel Godmother Night won the World Fantasy Award in 1997, and Unquenchable Fire won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1989. Alexander Chee, in his essay “The Querent,” described Unquenchable Fire as “a satire of magic and suburban America, like Freedom but with spells for green lawns.”
But as Bogi Takács noted, “Pollack is probably just as well known for her nonfiction as her fiction, if not better; she is a prolific author and lecturer on occult topics, especially the Tarot and other forms of divination.” Her 1980 book Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom is a major text in Tarot studies. Morgan M. Page told The Guardian, “Quite simply, Rachel was the greatest living authority on the tarot.” Page described Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom as “the basis of all modern tarot interpretation. Every book that has come since is basically cribbing her work.”
Pollck was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to the United Kingdom in her early twenties. The Guardian notes that she belonged “to the group that drew up the first trans manifesto, published in the GLF’s newsletter in 1972, entitled Don’t Call Me Mister You Fucking Beast.”
Roz Kaveney told The Guardian, “Rachel was a crystallising force in the trans movement and so many other areas. She was perpetually an inspirational figure, and was one of the first professional trans writers who had a career while out, and proved that it was possible to do that.”
Pollack’s wife, Judith Zoe Matoff, announced her passing on Facebook, and Neil Gaiman shared the news via Twitter:
She was my friend for 38 years and I will miss her. Sending love to Rachel Pollack wherever her journeys take her. pic.twitter.com/N2d6O7wSup
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) April 7, 2023
DC Comics also acknowledged Pollack and her work:
DC is deeply saddened by the passing of Rachel Pollack. Her trailblazing work on DOOM PATROL changed DC forever and inspired a generation of talent, setting a new bar for ambition and experimentation in superhero comics. She loved the medium, and it loved her back. https://t.co/lQHxqWVMzj
— DC (@DCOfficial) April 7, 2023
