Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Author and Vanity Fair Correspondent Dominick Dunne’s last written book, “Too Much Money: A Novel” is scheduled to hit the book stands in the month of December this year. Alas, the celebrated author of such prestigious literary works as “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles” and “An Inconvenient Woman”, is not going to be around to witness the moment. Dominick Dunne collapsed to bladder cancer on Wednesday, August 26, 2009, at his Manhattan residence, as has been confirmed by his son, actor-director Griffin Dunne.

Dunne is widely known for his generous and substantial contribution to the world of literature and journalism during a career that has spanned over quite a few decades. As a news correspondent at the Vanity Fair, he had amassed great popularity by breaking true crime stories of the rich and the affluent, in the public eye.

Dunne had first embarked on his career at the tabloid in the year 1984, when he had been asked to pursue a story of the trial of his 22 year old daughter’s slayer. It changed the course of his professional life (prior to that and a substance abuse interlude, he was a television and film producer for almost as long as two decades). His dedicated coverage of the trials of such high profile celebs as O.J. Simpson, William Kennedy Smith and more, achieved him a celebrity status.

Among his notable literary works, a slew of memoirs of famous people like Elizabeth Taylor, Imelda Marcos, Robert Mapplethorpe, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening and others, have found widespread recognition.

He had also dished out quite a few best-sellers in the forms of “A Season in Purgatory” (novel), “Fatal Charms” (essay collection) and a memoirs titled “The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Dropper.”