Best-selling Australian author Bryce Courtenay, whose first and final booksdrew on his tough early-life experiences in Africa, has died of stomach cancer.He was 79.
He started writing inmidlife and called his first novels "practice books," but his debutwas a success. "The Power of One" was published in 1989, translatedinto 12 languages and became a hit movie.
His publisher PenguinGroup said Friday that Courtenay died at his family home in the Australiancapital Canberra late Thursday surrounded by his family and pets.
His 21st novel,"Jack of Diamonds," was published on Nov. 12 and included a movingepilogue to his readers.
"It's been aprivilege to write for you and to have you accept me as a storyteller in yourlives," he wrote.
"Now, as my storydraws to an end, may I say only, 'Thank you. You have been simplywonderful,'" he added.
Courtenay was born theillegitimate son of a dressmaker on Aug. 14, 1933, in the mountain town ofBarberton in what is now the Limpopo province of South Africa.
By the age of 17, he wasworking in the dangerous mines of what is now Zimbabwe, which paid his way toBritain where he studied at the London School of Journalism. He met anAustralian, Benita Solomon, whom he followed to her hometown of Sydney in 1958and married.
He fell into a career inadvertising with U.S. agency McCann Erikson at the age of 26 and rose to creativedirector. He had an epiphany at the age of 50 when he decided to fulfill alifelong ambition to be a novelist.
"The Power ofOne" was to be the first of three "practice books" Courtenayplanned to write over three years before taking two years to write a fourthbook which he hoped would find a publisher.
"I was absolutelystaggered when somebody wanted to publish it in the first place,"Courtenay said in his official biography released by Penguin.
"Now its worldwidesuccess and the fact that it's available in 12 languages still amazes me,"he added. It became a movie starring Morgan Freeman.
Courtenay dedicated itssequel, "Tandia," to his third son, Damon, who died ofmedically-acquired AIDS at the age of 24 on April 1, 1991 — two months beforethe book was published.
That tragedy inspiredhis third book, "April Fool's Day," that deals with the public fearof AIDS and was published in 1993.
In June, doctors toldCourtenay that there was no hope of curing his stomach cancer.
Bob Sessions,Courtenay's longstanding publisher at Penguin, said the author would produce a600-page book in only six months, sometimes writing for more than 12 hours aday.
"He was a bornstoryteller and I would tell him he was a latter-day Charles Dickens with hisstrong and complex plots, larger-than-life characters and his ability to appealto a large number of readers," Sessions said.