Author and NPR book critic, dies at 75

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August 6, 2015 9:18 AM

Alan Cheuse, a late-blooming author who published his first short story just before his 40th birthday and went on to write two dozen books is dead.

Alan Cheuse

Alan Cheuse, a late-blooming author who published his first short story just before his 40th birthday and went on to write two dozen books, but who became even better known as a longtime book critic for NPR, died in San Jose, Calif. He was 75.

The cause was injuries sustained in an automobile accident on July 14 after he left the Squaw Valley Community of Writers workshop, his daughter Sonya Cheuse said.

“Live as much as you can, read as much as you can, and write as much as you can,” Mr. Cheuse taught would-be authors. He practiced what he professed.

Alan Stuart Cheuse was born in Perth Amboy, N.J., on Jan. 23, 1940. His father, Philip Kaplan Cheuse, who was born in Ukraine and defected from the Russian air force, owned a television repair shop. His mother was the former Matilda Diamond.

He studied literature at Rutgers University, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1961 and where he returned to earn a doctorate in comparative literature in 1974.

His first two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter Sonya, he is survived by his third wife, Kris O’Shee; his son, Josh; another daughter, Emma Cheuse; two grandchildren; and a brother, Sheldon.

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