NEW YORK — David Markson, 82, a revered postmodern author who rummaged relentlessly and humorously through art, history and human nature in such novels as “Wittgenstein’s Mistress” and also wrote crime fiction, poetry and a spoof of Westerns made into the Frank Sinatra film “Dirty Dingus Magee,” has died at age 82.
The author’s literary agent and former wife Elaine Markson said today that he was found in his bed in his Greenwich Village apartment late last week. She did not know the cause of death, but said Markson had been in failing health.
Little known to the general public, Markson was idolized by a core of fans that included Ann Beattie and David Foster Wallace. He was celebrated for his insights and for how he expressed them, often in paragraphs lasting just a sentence or two.
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