THE LITERARY and authorship space was left feeling a little dim this week following the news that bestselling novelist Eric Jerome Dickey had died.

The 59-year-old is reported to have passed away following a long battle with cancer.

An aspiring actor and stand-up comic who began writing fiction over 25 years-ago some of Dickey’s best known titles were ‘Friends and Lovers’, ‘Sister, Sister’ and ‘Waking With Enemies’.

According to his publisher Dickay wrote 29 books and sold over seven million copies.

He also worked on the screenplay for the 1998 movie “Cappuccino,” wrote a comic book miniseries for Marvel, and contributed to such anthologies as “Mothers and Sons” and “Black Silk: A Collection of African American Erotica.”

Dickey was a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and a computer technology major at the University of Memphis. He moved to Los Angeles after college and eventually set much of his work there.

He worked as a software engineer in the aerospace industry, but found himself becoming more interested in the arts. He developed his narrative skills through creative writing classes at UCLA and through reading; favorite authors included Judy Blume.

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