«We have lost a great figure of English literature,» said publisher Curtis Brown CEO Johnny Geller.
John le Carré, the spy who became an author whose novels defined the Cold War era, has died, his publisher said in a statement on Sunday. He was 89. The cause of death was pneumonia, publisher Curtis Brown CEO Johnny Geller said in a statement. Le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwell, is survived by his wife of almost 50 years and his four sons. «His like will never be seen again, and his loss will be felt by every book lover, everyone interested in the human condition,» Geller said in a statement. «We have lost a great figure of English literature, a man of great wit, kindness, humor and intelligence. I have lost a friend, a mentor and an inspiration.» Le Carré told CBS News’ Mark Phillips in 1996, «Joseph Conrad wrote about the sea because he was born to the sea. I was recruited very early into the secret world. I would copy Conrad in that request; the secret world was my natural element, I was in it for those years and I understand its workings as he understands the sea.» Le Carré’s debut novel, «Call for the Dead,» introduced the world to George Smiley, the bespectacled, unhappy but relentless civil servant who was a sort of anti-James Bond. Smiley appeared in nine of le Carré’s books, including as a side character in his third book and first best seller, «The Spy Who Came In from the Cold,» and in his last book, «A Legacy of Spies.» in 2018 that «these characters never left me.» «In some curious way, particularly Smiley, they became — even if I wasn’t writing about them — they became quite conscious companions at times in my imagination,» le Carré said. «And what I wanted to do at this stage, this point of closure in the Smiley saga now 50,60 years on, was have the present interrogate the past about what we did then in the Cold War in the name of freedom. And was it worth it. And it was with this very mood very much that I concluded the book and the search for George Smiley, which for me was some kind of search for truth.
