George Latshaw photographed in 1999 putting on an impromptu puppet show in his Florida home.

I just received the awful news that George Latshaw passed away last night in hospital. Very little other information is available right now, but this is a terrible, terrible loss for the puppetry community.

George was a puppeteer, writer and director whose shadow looms large over the American puppetry community. He is probably best known for his work editing the Puppetry Journal (which he founded in 1949) for almost two decades and for his book The Complete Book of Puppetry, which is one of the most definitive works on the art form ever written. George befriended and mentored dozens, if not hundreds, of puppeteers in his lifetime and influenced thousands more through his writing. The PofA’s biannual George Latshaw Award for accomplishments in writing and publishing in puppetry is named in honour of him.

My deepest condolences – along with those of the entire puppetry community I am sure – go out to his wife Pat Latshaw and all of George’s family and friends.