An American novelist, playwright, and journalist, he is best known for The End of My Life and Brill Among the Ruins. His other works include The Hound of Earth, The Violated, and A Game Men Play.
He served as a volunteer ambulance driver during World War II.
His novel, Brill Among the Ruins, was nominated for the National Book Award.
He was born in Ohio to a Lebanese father and an American mother. He married Bettina Yensen in 1946; they had two children.
Critics have compared his writing style to that of Ernest Hemingway.