Art Buchwald, columnist and Pulitzer winner, dies at age 81

WASHINGTON — Art Buchwald, 81, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist, died of kidney failure Wednesday at his son's home in Washington, his family announced Thursday.

Buchwald zinged the high, mighty and humor-challenged in his column, which he wrote for more than a half-century and which at one point was syndicated to more than 550 newspapers, including The Seattle Times. He also published more than 30 books.

Last year didn't start well for the writer. Kidney and vascular problems forced doctors to amputate one of his legs just below the knee in January, and Buchwald opted to not have dialysis. In February, he entered Washington Home and Community Hospices, which he described as "a place where you go when you want to go."

But by July, despite his physicians' predictions, Buchwald left hospice. "Instead of going straight upstairs, I am going to Martha's Vineyard," he wrote.

He finished his last book, "Too Soon To Say Goodbye," there, and it was published in November. Buchwald kept his sense of humor until he slipped into unconsciousness just before he died, said his longtime friend, Washington Post Vice President at-Large Benjamin Bradlee.

"I just don't want to die the same day Castro dies," Buchwald told his friends, Bradlee said.

The political satirist went out with a twist:

"Hi, I'm Art Buchwald and I just died," he announced with a grin, in a video posted on The New York Times Web site. Buchwald recorded the video interview last summer, to be shown after his death.

Death and dying became fodder for the column that he continued to write through 2006, mining the topic as regularly as politicians, scandals and news of the day.

Shortly after he entered hospice last February, he organized his last hurrah by calling up gossip columnists and radio talk show hosts to declare, "I'm still alive!" His March 7 column began, "I am writing this article from a hospice. But being in the hospice didn't work out exactly the way I wanted it to. By all rights I should have finished my time here five or six weeks ago — at least that's all Medicare would pay for."

Before death and dying became part of his columns, politics was a favorite jumping-off point. He said his favorite president was Richard Nixon, whose delusions made for rich satirical material. "I worship the very quicksand he walks on," Buchwald quipped.

Buchwald also wrote about his bouts with mental disorders with a frankness that won him new fans around the country. He had been hospitalized for clinical depression in 1963 and for manic depression in 1987. Both episodes nearly drove him to suicide, he said; drugs and therapy were his salvation. He joked to friends that if he had a third bout of depression, "I will be inducted in the Bipolar Hall of Fame."

A memorial service is being planned, the family said.

Survivors include three children, Joel Buchwald, of Washington, Connie Marks, of Culpeper, Va., and Jennifer Buchwald, of Boston; two sisters; and five grandchildren.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.