Author M Scott Peck, who wrote the bestseller The Road Less Traveled and other self-help books, has died. He was 69.
Peck died on Sunday at his home in Connecticut, long-time friend and Los Angeles publicist Michael Levine said. He had suffered from pancreatic and liver-duct cancer.
Peck spent more than 10 years in the private practice of psychiatry and had his first book, The Road Less Traveled, published in 1978. The self-help book that begins with the words ”Life is difficult” has sold more than six million copies in North America and been translated into 20 languages.
By the mid-1990s, the book had made 258 appearances on the New York Times bestseller list.
His other books include People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, Meditations from the Road, and Further Along the Road Less Traveled.
Peck was the recipient of the 1984 Kaleidoscope Award for Peacemaking and the 1994 Temple International Peace Prize. He also received the Learning, Faith and Freedom Medal from Georgetown University in 1996.
He is survived by his wife, Kathleen Kline Yates Peck; his daughter, Belinda; his son, Christopher; and two grandchildren. — Sapa-AP