Tom Robbins, the author celebrated for his whimsical and counter-cultural novels such as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Jitterbug Perfume, died on Sunday, February 9, 2025, at the age of 92.
His son Fleetwood confirmed the death but did not cite a cause.
Alongside works by Carlos Castaneda, Richard Brautigan, and Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbin’s paperbacks, dog-eared and torn, were common sights on the bookshelves and bedside milk crates of the late hippie era between the tail end of the Vietnam War and the rise of Ronald Reagan’s America. He became one of the rare writers to achieve both a cult following and mega-best-seller status.
Though he kept writing into the 21st century, he continually chose titles that emanated the era’s Day-Glo whimsy, like “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” (1976), “Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas” (1994) and “Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates” (2000).
“I’m descended from a long line of preachers and policemen,” he told High Times magazine in 2002. “Now, it’s common knowledge that cops are congenital liars, and evangelists spend their lives telling fantastic tales in such a way as to convince otherwise rational people that they’re factual. So, I guess I come by my narrative inclinations naturally.”
Career Of Tom Robbins
Throughout his career, Robbins received several accolades, including the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Arts Festival and the 2012 Literary Lifetime Achievement Prize from the Library of Virginia. Despite the critical acclaim, Robbins stated that his goal was to “twine ideas and images into big subversive pretzels of life, death and goodliness on the chance that they might help keep the world lively, and give it the flexibility to endure”.
In lieu of a service, Tom Robbins requested that people remember him by reading his books. His wife, Alexa Robbins, suggested that donations in Tom’s honor be made to The Museum of Northwest Art, The La Conner Swinomish Library, SPOT Animal Rescue, and Hospice of the Northwest. He is survived by his wife, Alexa Robbins, and three sons