Historian Tony Judt passed away last Friday. He was 62-years-old. The cause of death was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
His book Postwar was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. In total, he has written seven books and edited three. He also wrote essays on American and European public policy. Judt had taught at Cambridge University, UC Berkley, Oxford, and NYU. Despite the debilitating effects of this disease, Judt continued to write and lecture. In 2010 Penguin Press released what would be his last title, Ill Fares the Land.
Read more in his obituary at the Washington Post. ALS has afflicted several people in the publishing community. Authors affected by this disease include Stephen Hawking, Mao Zedong, and Professor Morrie Schwartz.