"Bill was a master writer, thinker, inspirer and human being," Gass' longtime editor, Vicki Wilson, said in a statement. Along with John Barth, John Hawkes and others, Gass was among a generation of writers who opened up, and often abandoned, traditional narration. He won three National Book Critics Circle prizes for criticism and four Pushcart Prizes for the best work published by small presses or magazines. Knopf will publish an anthology of his work, "The William Gass Reader," on June 8. Voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983, Gass never won a Pulitzer Prize, but that, apparently, was for the better.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 07, 2017 18:33 UTC