Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1991 TAG: 9104030528
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PARIS LENGTH: Medium
The author died at La Providence Hospital in the town of Vevey, near Lake Geneva, where he had been hospitalized for several days. Hospital director Robert Bertschy said the cause of his death was not immediately known.
Greene combined a passion for politics, exoticism and religion in his long career.
"Graham Greene's place is secure as one of the greatest British novelists of the 20th century," said Tony Lacey, publishing director of Penguin Books in Britain.
Greene, who had a home in Antibes on the French Riviera, is the author of such celebrated novels as "The Power and the Glory," "The Third Man" and "The Quiet American."
He turned many of his stories into successful movie scripts, including "Our Man in Havana" and "The Comedians."
Greene traveled widely and many of his most successful novels had a political thrust.
Critics said his novels sought to convey a sense of morality and hope to man, whom he saw as plagued by frustration and despair. But Greene, a Roman Catholic convert, viewed many of his novels as "mere entertainments."
Greene was born in Berkhamsted, England, on Oct. 2, 1904.
He got his first job on the staff of The Times of London in 1926, where he worked as a copyreader for four years. He joined the Foreign Office during World War II.
His first novel, "Babbling April," was published in 1925, and he published 24 novels, including "The Honorary Consul" and "The Ministry of Fear," seven plays, five screenplays, numerous essays and children's books, and two volumes of his autobiography.
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