From today's Washington Post:

Faith McNulty, 86, author of the 1980 bestseller The Burning Bed, which focused national attention on domestic violence, died April 10 at her farm in South Kingstown, R.I. No cause of death was reported.

Ms. McNulty also wrote for the "Talk of the Town" section in the New Yorker magazine for four decades and wrote wildlife and children's books, including How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World.

The Burning Bed told the story of Francine Hughes, an abused woman who killed her husband by setting him afire as he slept and who was acquitted on self-defense. The book became a TV movie in 1984 and starred Farrah Fawcett.

Ms. McNulty, a native of New York, began her news career as a copy girl at the New York Daily News. She also was a reporter and researcher for Life magazine and wrote for Audubon magazine.

And from the Providence Journal, McNulty's local paper:

She and her second husband, John McNulty—whom she met at the Daily News and who later wrote for The New Yorker—kept company with such literary luminaries as Joseph Mitchell, James Thurber, E.B. White, John Cheever, A.J. Leibling and S.J. Perelman.

Her heart's work was writing wildlife articles and books, on such topics as whales, black-footed ferrets and whooping cranes. The book on black-footed ferrets, Must They Die?, was instrumental in getting a pesticide banned.
...
Mrs. McNulty was a slight woman, demure of speech, bright of gaze, and refreshingly innocent of fashion. She preferred old pants, long skirts, baggy sweaters (pilled), and Birkenstocks. Her cocktail garb was often a blue jean skirt, and a necklace—with Birkenstocks.

She was a first-rate raconteur who delivered stories with dry, sometimes biting wit. She often recounted her early life in New York City, or writing adventures such as her 2,000-mile Jeep ride through Madagascar, or her face-to-face meeting with Koko the gorilla. "We met and after an exchange of gifts, Koko the gorilla kissed me. She smelled sweet, like new-mown hay, and we looked into each other's eyes with almost equal curiosity."
...
Gerry Goldstein, former longtime chief of The Journal's South County bureau in Wakefield said, "To sum her up, she always amazed me. She led this really romantic and Runyonesque life in New York City, with her second husband, who was the best friend of James Thurber. She was probably as sophisticated a mind as you can ever run across."

And yet, Goldstein said, "there was something very gentle and maternal about her, and that's what produced all these dozens of children's stories. She could write a story about a delicate little field mouse and always retain the hard edge of a journalist, and that's maybe why she could produce something like The Burning Bed."
...
Mrs. McNulty published her first fiction piece for The New Yorker in 1943, "a teeny tiny little story" that happened to be about South County.

In 1953, Mrs. McNulty signed on as a "Talk of the Town" reporter, writing regularly about South County. She turned to wildlife writing after her third husband, Richard Martin, found a mouse on the doorstep and she was inspired to write about the little creature.

Obituaries: Of Note [WaPo]
Burning Bed author McNulty loved her life in South County [Providence Journal, login]
Lasting Faith: Better times live on in Faith McNulty's elegant prose [2001 interview, Providence Journal]
A Journalist Joins the War Effort From London: Faith McNulty Martin [Oral history, via WKCD: "In those days a city room was a very fast-moving place where pieces of paper had to go from one desk to another, and they used to use copy boys to carry the stuff. I was hired because the boys had gone to war. It was a very good break for me, and I was crazy about it..."]
Adopt a black-footed ferret [Smithsonian National Zoological Park; they're in trouble, and wicked cute.]

Update: I did adopt one. (Virtually, I mean.) I'll post the very fuzzy picture at some point and see if I can badger the zoo into giving me some news about the little nipper. I named it McNulty.

Categories: McNulty, Obits, Books