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NEW YORK, May 24, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Author Gilbert Sorrentino, a longtime Stanford University professor who wrote 15 works of avant-garde fiction, has died in New York at age 77.
Sorrentino died Thursday from complications of lung cancer, the Los Angles Times reported Wednesday.
Although his works never reached popular levels among the public, he was admired among his peers as "an American master," novelist Don DeLillo told the newspaper.
"His work has humor, anger, passion and deep-reaching memory," DeLillo said. "But he wrote against the times, against the pressure to be commercially successful. There was an edge in his work that wasn't always easy to accept."
In addition to his novels, Sorrentino wrote eight volumes of poetry, founded the literary magazine Neon, edited Kulchur magazine and worked for Grove Press, editing Alex Haley's "Autobiography of Malcolm X," the Times said.
His first novel was "The Sky Changes" in 1966. Other works included "Steelwork," "Mulligan Stew" and "Little Casino," his final book published in 2002.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
