Novelist WP Kinsella, author of ‘Shoeless Joe,’ dies at 81

The story, which was published in 1982, follows a farmer who is coaxed in a dream to build a ballpark in a corn field and is visited by the ghost of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, the White Sox star who was banned from baseball over the 1919 World Series betting scandal.

William Patrick Kinsella was born in Edmonton, Alberta. The film starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and Ray Liotta premiered in 1989 and was an Oscar nominee for best picture. “I put in no sex, no violence, no obscenity, none of that stuff that sells”, he said”, I wanted to write a book for imaginative readers, an affirmative statement about life”.

“I wrote it 30 years ago, and the fact that people are still discovering it makes me proud”.

After suffering a head injury in auto crash, CBC reported, Kinsella said he lost interest in writing fiction and instead spent his time playing Scrabble online.

Kinsella’s biographer, Willie Steele, hinted that the decision to die on his own terms had been in the works for at least the past few weeks. His father John had played minor league baseball, and the young Kinsella fell for the game playing with friends on sandlots in Edmonton.

He took writing courses at the University of Victoria and earned a bachelor of arts in creative writing in 1974 and went on to complete a master of fine arts in English through the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Before becoming a professional author, he taught English at the University of Calgary, the biography said.

Vancouver Writer’s Festival founder Alma Lee said Kinsella was a private man with a passion for baseball.

Kinsella said he was inspired by Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man when he read the book of science fiction short stories when he was about 18.

“I think he’s done that for a lot of people”, Steele added.

Kinsella was married three times.

His literary agency said in a statement that Kinsella’s final work of fiction, “Russian Dolls”, will be published next year.

He told the news service that in a recent interview, Kinsella reflected, “I’m a storyteller, in that my greatest satisfaction comes from making people laugh and also leaving them with a tear in the corner of their eye”.

Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand.

Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism.