V.S. Pritchett, Master Of Short Story, Dies

V.S. Pritchett, a master of the English short story and keen observer of humanity who published more than 40 books of short stories, novels, essays, literary criticism and autobiographies, has died. He was 96.

Pritchett, who suffered a stroke in January, died Thursday at Whittington Hospital, said his son, Oliver Pritchett.

Novelist Elizabeth Bowen called Pritchett the “most important English practitioner” of the short story and The Times of London said of his travel writing: “Everywhere he slips unobtrusively into the life of the country and lets it speak for itself.”

“I have generally liked all the people I have met in every country. I did not say what I thought. I did not reproach or criticize them - I listened,” Pritchett said in an interview with The Associated Press before his 90th birthday.

Knighted in 1975 for services to literature, Pritchett was noted for his brilliant portraits of people in his stories and journalism.