People asked, so I dug a little deeper into the recent death of publisher Dennis McMillan. I first heard he died on May 1, but update that to May 5 — as announced in this message on the Dennis Facebook page:
“Dennis McMillan died on May 5, 2026 at HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. He had caught pneumonia and had some cardiac issues which led to his passing on the fifth day in the hospital.”
The shot above is one Dennis sent me when he turned 60 — a self portrait, and I testify that is Dennis both in the flesh and in spirit.
I called Kent Harrington to see if he’d heard more details. Last I knew Dennis had been in Tucson for a few months, acting as caretaker for an old guy in decline. (If I have it right, this guy was a longtime pal of Kent Anderson.) Before that Dennis was in Florida, doing pretty much the same thing — I think I heard that that person died, leading to the move back to Tucson.
Calling Dennis several times recently to fact-check a memoir I was working on, he told me that he was going to leave Tucson. He couldn’t take it — the guy he was helping wouldn’t quit smoking, and he didn’t want to watch him kill himself any longer. Kent tells me that Dennis actually came back into the house one day to find a corpse. Profoundly depressing.
Dennis set up his next move, leaving Tucson early in April. He arranged to handle book sales for Mark Walter in Phoenix — Walter had a separate house for his collection where Dennis could stay while he did the work. He rolled in with a U-Haul and Walter noticed he was somewhat weak and needed help unloading. Dennis had a cough when he arrived.
Walter also noticed that Dennis wasn’t getting sales info posted. Apparently Dennis complained about the mattress in the house, thinking it might be a cause of his increasing coughing and weakness. Not tracking. He suspected he had “valley fever” — a Southwest condition, bacterial, that afflicts older people.
They changed out the mattress. Dennis didn’t get better. Not working on the collection. Couldn’t focus. If you’ve ever had pneumonia — I have a case of it right now — the signs are all right there. You just don’t realize how sick you really are.
On May 1 they took Dennis to the hospital where they took fluid off his lungs. On May 3 they wanted to intubate, but Dennis refused. He died on May 5.
He left his body to science.
People are talking about doing collections of memoirs, and I imagine some will appear. And other memoirs and appreciations later.
The shakeout now really begins on the lasting reputation of his press — or not. I trust no one doubts where I stand on that legacy.
