After A Battle With Cancer, Author David Rakoff Has Died

The Montreal-born writer and This American Life contributor, was diagnosed with a malignant tumour in 2010. His Jewish parents had emigrated from South Africa to Canada, and Rakoff moved to New York (a city he called "the great love of my live") to attend Columbia University. After college, Rakoff had worked in Japan as a translator, but became sick with Hodgkins Disease. He recovered, got into publishing and met Ira Glass, who was then a producer at NPR. Glass went on to create This American Life and Rakoff is credited as one of the contributors who helped shape the voice of the show. As a freelance journalist, his work appeared in the New York Times, Salon and New York and he wrote three essay collections: Fraud, Don't Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty. He was honoured with the Thurber Prize For Humour for Half Empty, his final book. He was 47.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/books/david-rakoff-award-winning-humorist-dies-at-47.html?smid=tw-nytimes