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SEATTLE, Dec 27, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Author and attorney George Bernau, who wrote the novel "Promises to Keep" about what would have happened if President Kennedy survived, has died at age 60.
Bernau died Dec. 12 in Washington state of complications from a stroke suffered in October, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The Minneapolis native made publishing history in 1987 when his debut manuscript based on Kennedy was bought by Warner Books for a record advance for a first-time novelist of $750,000.
The attorney left the legal profession and turned to writing after being seriously injured in a 1977 auto accident. It took him five years to write "Promises to Keep" by longhand, which went on to become a TV miniseries.
Bernau's second book, "Candle in the Wind" published in 1990, speculated what would have happened if Marilyn Monroe had survived her drug overdose. His third novel, the 1994 "Black Phoenix," was about Adolf Hitler henchman Joseph Goebbels faking his own death and developing biological weapons.
His wife, Laurel, died of breast cancer in 1998. Bernau is survived by their daughter.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
