from lcweb2.loc.gov
MSNBC is reporting the breaking news that beloved Washington Post columnist, author, humorist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Buchwald has died at 81, after a long and protracted kidney illness that even he was surprised to have survived. Buchwald checked himself into a D.C. area hospice last February 2006, forgoing kidney dialysis and expecting to die any day — instead, his hospice room became a salon for the best and brightest (and funniest) of D.C.'s political and media elite, and he not only survived his health crisis but lived to return to his home on Martha's Vineyard, where he completed his final book, To o Soon To Say Goodbye, about his time in the hospice. The book includes eulogies by family, friends, and famous colleagues; no doubt those will soon be flowing thick and fast for this much-respected and much-loved man.
Update: Washington Post front-page obituary
Further Update: E&P has Buchwald's farewell column, written before he entered the hospice last February, meant to be published posthumously. Oddly and endearingly out of date. [E&P]
Related:
Art Buchwald: Having The Time of My Life [WaPo]
Art Buchwald: Better Read Than Dead [WaPo]
Columns by Art Buchwald [WaPo]
