Author J.G. Ballard dies at 78

From the Associated Press:

LONDON -- Author J.G. Ballard, a survivor of a Japanese prison camp whose vision was so dark and distinctive it was labeled "Ballardian" and who reached a wide audience with the autobiographical "Empire Of The Sun," died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78.

Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill "for several years" and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death.

Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 -- an experience he drew upon in the 1984 novel "Empire of The Sun," adapted as a film by Steven Spielberg.