Trending Now: Celebrity Biographer Michael Schumacher Dead at 75 – Fans React

Michael Schumacher, acclaimed biographer of celebrities like Francis Ford Coppola and Eric Clapton, has died. He was 75.

The author, known professionally as M. Schumacher, died on Dec. 29, his daughter Emily Joy Schumacher confirmed on Jan. 5, per The Associated Press and ABC News. She did not provide the cause of death for her father, whose work included Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg and Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary.

“My dad was a very generous person with people. He loved people. He loved talking to people. He loved listening to people. He loved stories,” his daughter Emily said in a statement, per Daily Mail, also noting he was a “history person” and a “good human.”

She added, “When I think of my dad, I think of him engaged in conversation, coffee in his hand and his notebook.”

Schumacher was born in Kansas and grew up in Kenosha, Wis., on the shore of Lake Michigan. He pursued a degree in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, though he withdrew from the school just one credit shy of graduating, his daughter said per ABC and AP.

He was always drawn to writing, his daughter said. Schumacher worked longhand, and filled tons of flip notebooks with his words before transferring them onto a typewriter. Emily said the sound of the keys clacking still resonates today, per ABC.

Schumacher’s main interests boiled down to two broad categories, biographies and Great Lakes history — which his daughter described as two separate writing careers, per ABC and AP.

Some of Schumacher’s best known biographies include Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker’s Life and Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton, as well as Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics and Mr. Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers & the Birth of the NBA.

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In addition to his biographical work, Schumacher’s books tracing the stories behind famed shipwrecks and nautical disasters in the Great Lakes included Wreck of the Carl D: A True Story of Loss, Survival, and Rescue at Sea; Torn in Two: The Sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell and One Man’s Survival on the Open Sea; Too Much Sea for Their Decks: Shipwrecks of Minnesota’s North Shore and Isle Royale and Along Lake Michigan: Shipwreck Stories of Life and Loss.