It's been a year since August Floyd Coppola is gone.From what I have read,he was a very intelligent person,a dedicated father,a bold inventor;but mostly he was known as a literature teacher who "educated young people and filled their minds with arts, imagination and philosophy."
Here's an obituary
Coppola, August, a former literature professor who was the father of actor Nicolas Cage and brother of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, has died. He was 75. Coppola died Tuesday in Newport Beach, CA after suffering a heart attack. Often described as flamboyant and eccentric, Coppola taught comparative literature at Cal State Long Beach in the 1960s and '70s and served as a trustee of the California State University system before moving to San Francisco State in 1984. He became dean of the School of Creative Arts there and was also professor of cinema until 1992. Coppola was born Feb. 16, 1934, in Hartford, Conn., the oldest child of Carmine Coppola, a composer and classically trained flutist, and his wife, Italia, a lyricist. The family moved often, depending on where Carmine's work took them, but the children were close and enjoyed going to movies together and reading books. August Coppola earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from UCLA, a master's in English from Hofstra University and a doctorate in comparative literature and interdisciplinary studies from Occidental College, then began teaching at Cal State Long Beach. He and his wife, dancer Joy Vogelsang, had three sons, Christopher, Marc and Nicolas, before divorcing. Christopher became a film director and Marc a disc jockey. He is survived by his brother, Francis Ford Coppola; his sister, Talia Shire; three sons, Christopher Coppola, Marc Coppola and Nicolas Cage; and six grandchildren. He is also survived by his companion, Lorrie Tennant.
And an interview from while he was writing his second novel "Nimbus"
August Coppola Writes Quietly
August Coppola is the former dean of the School of Creative Arts at San Francisco State, where he was known as a visionary. He also invented the Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium.
These days Coppola, 65, is living in Savannah, Ga., and writing fiction. Days ago, he completed a romantic novel that he says wrote itself in 90 days. Now he's back at work on the novel he has been writing for years, "The Nymbus."
"It's an allegory of society. It's about love and the creativity of women," Coppola says. "Women's creativity is not completely appreciated, as opposed to people who create atomic bombs." He is looking for a publisher. Coppola, who is director Francis Ford Coppola's brother and actor Nicolas Cage's father, moved to Savannah four years ago. "I was looking for a place to work," he says. "Being active and relatively well-known in San Francisco, I needed to go to a place where I could hole up and write. To write, you can't be interrupted. It throws you off. It's like trying to make love and people keep walking in on you."
He's not quite sure why he chose Savannah. "I came here once with Nicolas, and I liked it. I was taken by the beauty of the city. Savannah is very hot. But I live in a 150-year-old house, and it's quite cool. The house is very quiet. And I found there was a whole history of the South and the Civil War that I didn't know about. This is an entirely different side of America."
With love to Nicolas and his family on such a tender day.
-- Edited by Lula Argante on Wednesday 27th of October 2010 12:47:11 PM