Robert Ruark - Last Years

Last Years

After his first half dozen books or so, Ruark continued to write, though few of his later novels matched his earlier successes. In 1960, after a bittersweet visit to his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, Ruark left the U. S. for good. He lived in London and Barcelona, before settling in Sant Antoni de Calonge, Spain. Shortly before his death, he wrote a final article which later appeared in Playboy and was titled "Nothing Works and Nobody Cares." He died in London, England, on July 1, 1965, of cirrhosis of the liver. His last novel, The Honey Badger, exemplified the condition of the author at this time in his life. The book was published posthumously, as was Use Enough Gun, which is essentially a collection of excerpts from his earlier works. More notable are the two collections published by McIntosh and Casada, which are representative of the author's finest work.

Robert Ruark is buried in Palamos, Spain.