US:Pulitzer Prize-winning American humourist Arthur "Art" Buchwald (81), who was called the "patron saint of political satire", died of kidney failure on Wednesday, his son Joel said yesterday.
Buchwald had been critically ill and near death last year but recuperated enough to write a book about the experience.
Too Soon to Say Goodbye was published in November and included eulogies that his friends had planned to deliver at his expected funeral a year ago.
A newspaper humorist whose column was syndicated to more than 550 publications at one point, Buchwald won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. He also published more than 30 books.
The title of his book I Think I Don't Remember was from a column he did after former US president Ronald Reagan said he could not recall signing an executive order permitting the covert sale of US arms to Iran.
Buchwald received the 2006 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. - (Reuters)