Art Buchwald, 81, humour columnist for more than a half-century who found new comic material in the issues that come up at the end of life, died of kidney failure last night at his son’s home in Washington, his family announced today.

Buchwald, an owlish, cigar-chomping extrovert, zinged the high, mighty and humour-challenged. His column, syndicated to more than 550 newspapers at one point, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. 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 humour until he slipped into unconsciousness just before he died, said his longtime friend, Washington Post Vice President at-Large Benjamin C. Bradlee. “I just don’t want to die the same day Castro dies,” Buchwald told his friends, Bradlee said.

A statement from the family said Buchwald will be buried on Martha’s Vineyard in the Vineyard Haven Cemetery, where his wife Ann is buried. A memorial service is being planned in Washington, the family said.

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