Dead at 87: Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the modern Dickens
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died on Thursday and the cause was not immediately known but his heath had been in failing in recent years
- Was awarded the Nobel prize in 1982 and is widely considered to be one of the best known Spanish language authors
- Started his career as a journalist before becoming one of the forefathers of the narrative literary form known as 'new journalism'
- Fled to Europe when a dictatorship took control of Colombia
- Was denied access to the U.S. for years because of his politics but grew close to President Clinton when the author condemned his impeachment
- Leaves behind a wife and two sons
Passed: Nobel Literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, seen here in March as he greeted fans and reporters outside his home on his 87th birthday in Mexico City, died on Thursday at his home in Mexico City.
Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died at his home in Mexico at the age of 87.
The Colombian Nobel Literature laureate is considered one of the greatest Spanish- language writers of all time, best-known for his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude.
During his career he achieved literary celebrity which spawned comparisons to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.
Last night Barack Obama was among the many to pay tribute to Garcia Marquez – known as ‘Gabo’ to his friends.
The US President said the world had lost ‘one of its greatest visionary writers’, adding that he cherished an inscribed copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude, presented to him by the author on a visit to Mexico.
‘I offer my thoughts to his family and friends, whom I hope take solace in the fact that Gabo’s work will live on for generations to come,’ he said.
Garcia Marquez was admitted to hospital in Mexico, where he has lived for the past three decades, on March 31 suffering from lung and urinary infections.
He spent eight days there before returning home to his family, who said in a statement at the time that his health was ‘stable’ but ‘fragile’.
The cause of his death, however, was not known last night.
Fernanda Familiar, a spokesman for his family including his wife, Mercedes Barcha, said last night: ‘Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died. Mercedes and her sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, have authorised me to give the information. Such deep sadness.’
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Legendary: His flamboyant and melancholy fictional works - among them 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold,' `'Love in the Time of Cholera' and 'Autumn of the Patriarch' - outsold everything published in Spanish except the Bible (pictured in 2007)
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos also paid tribute to the author on Twitter, saying: ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time.’
Former US president Bill Clinton said: ‘From the time I read One Hundred Years of Solitude more than 40 years ago, I was always amazed by his unique gifts of imagination, clarity of thought, and emotional honesty... I was honoured to be his friend and to know his great heart and brilliant mind for more than 20 years.’
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ NOVELS
- In Evil Hour (1962)
- One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
- Autumn of the Patriarch (1975)
- Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)
- The General in His Labyrinth (1989)
- Of Love and Other Demons (1994)
Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan said: ‘One would have to go back to Dickens to find a writer of the very highest literary quality who commanded such extraordinary persuasive powers over whole populations.
'It really is an extraordinary phenomenon, his literary career.’
Cristobal Pera, editorial director of Penguin Random House in Mexico, said: ‘He is like the Mandela of literature because of the impact that he has had on readers all over the world.
'His influence is universal, and that is a very rare thing.’
Garcia Marquez has made few public appearances in recent years, and in 2012 his younger brother revealed that the author was suffering from dementia and had stopped writing.
Jaime Garcia Marquez said: ‘He has problems with his memory. Sometimes I cry because I feel like I’m losing him.’
The epic 1967 novel One Hundred Years Of Solitude sold more than 50 million copies in more than 30 languages – outselling everything published in Spanish except for the Bible.
The story deals with the fictional town of Macondo, whose residents become infected by insomnia that shrouds them in forgetfulness.
Political: Despite being denied U.S. visas for years over his politics, he was courted by presidents and kings and counted Bill Clinton (pictured together in 2007) and Francois Mitterrand among his friends
Controversial: Marquez, pictured with Fidel Castro in 2000, turned down repeated calls for him to run for president of Colombia
High point: Garcia Marquez won the Nobel prize in 1982 (pictured)
He described Latin America as a 'source of insatiable creativity, full of sorrow and beauty, of which this roving and nostalgic Colombian is but one cipher more, singled out by fortune
His final breath: The author spent his last days in this hospital
Impish: Garcia Marquez married Mercedes Barcha, a neighbor from childhood days, in 1985 and they are pictured in 2007 returning to his hometown of Aracataca for the first time in 25 years
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