British writer J.G. Ballard has died at the age of 78.
He wrote Empire of the Sun and Crash, both of which were made into movies.
The Crash based on his book is the 1996 cars-n-sex one that starred Holly Hunter and James Spader, not the 2004 L.A. race relations one with Sandra Bullock and Don Cheadle.
Some of Ballard’s other books: The Crystal World, Day of Creation, Concrete Island, The Kindness of Women and Rushing to Paradise.
BoingBoing has a nice tribute with links here.