(CP) - Author and journalist Mordecai Richler, known for a dazzling literary range that included acclaimed satiric novels, outspoken political commentary and a whimsical children's character called Jacob Two-Two, died Tuesday of complications from cancer. Canada's literary community reacted with shock to news of Richler's sudden death just days after he was said to be responding well to chemotherapy. Please see below for a Richler family statement and a list of the author's works "Mordecai Richler was a fine novelist, a brilliant satirist, and an invaluable commentator on the absurdities of national life," novelist Margaret Atwood said in a statement. "He was a consummate professional; he was also a decent and generous man, loved by his friends and respected by his fellow writers. He will be very much missed." Prolific Canadian author Pierre Berton called Richler a "literary giant." "It's a great loss," Berton told CTV Newsnet. "I was looking forward to another Richler novel." Reports that the author was taking chemotherapy treatments surfaced last week but he was said to be doing well in Montreal, where his wife of 40 years and his five children gathered Tuesday. "We are deeply saddened at the sudden and unexpected death of our wonderful and loving father, Mordecai Richler, who passed away early (Tuesday) morning at the Montreal General Hospital of complications from cancer," the family said in a statement. Details of his memorial service will be announced shortly. Word of his death brought immediate tributes for Richler, the author of such widely praised novels as Barney's Version, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and St. Urbain's Horseman. While friends and family struggled with the loss, literary critics attempted to put the author's illustrious career in perspective. Russell Brown, who profiled Richler for the Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, said the 1959 publication of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was a watershed. "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is really the beginning of Canadian literature as a body of literature," he said. "Before that we had Canadian writers . . . Richler was really the first of the beginning of that explosion of new writing and especially new novels that told us about our time and place." Born in Montreal in 1931, Richler grew up in a working-class Jewish neighbourhood around St. Urbain Street, a setting that later appeared in his work. His first novel, The Acrobats, was published in 1954 after a stint in Paris with other writers like Allen Ginsberg and Mavis Gallant. Richler later stayed 18 straight years in England before returning to Canada in 1972. His breakthrough came with the publication of Duddy Kravitz which was later made into a popular film, for which Richler wrote the screenplay in 1974. He also developed a new legion of fans with the 1975 publication of Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, about a boy who said everything twice. It was later made into a stage play and film. Throughout his life, Richler continued a career in journalism as well, beginning in 1948 as a part-time reporter for the Montreal Herald. Most recently he worked as a columnist in the National Post. He ignited controversy with a 1991 article published in the New Yorker that looked at Quebec language laws limiting or prohibiting English use on signs. But journalist Hubert Bauch, a good friend of Richler's, said the author could get under everybody's skin - anglophones, Jews and francophones. "He was never anti-francophone," Bauch, who works at the Montreal Gazette, told LCN, TVA's all-news channel. "On the contrary, he always said no one was more cultured or intelligent than educated Quebec francophones." The author appeared to enjoy his role as a Montreal gadfly and cut a dashing figure in interviews, often described with scotch whisky in hand, wild hair and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. The image only seemed to add to his charm. "Here was somebody who neither looked like, nor did he sound like someone who would lord it over you, but he had something very serious to say," said Mark Levene, a University of Toronto professor who has written about and interviewed Richler. "(Those things ranged) from the possibility of Quebec separation . . . to his love for the Montreal Canadiens." Prime Minister Jean Chretien expressed sadness at Richler's death. "Mordecai Richler was the quintessential Canadian man of words, and his loss leaves us grasping for words that can do justice to his importance in Canada's artistic landscape," Chretien said in a statement. "He was quite simply one of the most brilliant, original and celebrated artists in Canadian history whose works will continue to stand the test of time for generations to come." Richler received numerous awards throughout his career and was recently appointed to the Order of Canada. He is the recipient of two Governor General literary awards, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and the Giller Prize. He was also nominated for the Booker Prize. Last fall he was honoured at the International Festival of Authors as one of the finest writers in the English language and one of Canada's most acerbic wits. Richler was working on a new book, called On Snooker, his take on the game. Despite the cantankerousness that often dominated his work and shaped his public persona, many who remembered Richler on Tuesday took pains to point out he also had a gentle side. "The classic line about not suffering fools gladly applied to Mordecai right across the board," said Terry Mosher, the Montreal Gazette cartoonist known as Aislin, a longtime friend of Richler's. "At the same time, there was a gentle side to the man that very few people saw. I remember once walking down Peel Street with him and his wife Florence, and Florence snapped a heel or something and just the gentle sort of way he helped her along the street almost brought tears to my eyes. "It was a very moving sort of thing." Brown said Richler's devotion to his family was also evident throughout his body of work. "The fascinating thing to me about Richler was he also seems to have been a fantastic father and husband," said Brown. "I love that moment at the end of St. Urbain's Horseman where Jake, who wants to be some kind of superhero setting the world aright, in the end, he's there in bed with his wife Nancy and they embrace, and that's how the novel ends with that kind of domestic bliss as being the place of stability." A statement from the family of author Mordecai Richler: We are deeply saddened at the sudden and unexpected death of our wonderful and loving father, Mordecai Richler, who passed away early this morning at the Montreal General Hospital of complications from cancer. His children and immediate family have gathered here to be with Florence, his wife of 40 years. Florence and her children, Daniel, Noah, Emma, Martha and Jacob, ask for privacy; there will be a funeral service for close friends and family at the end of this week, and we will announce the date and location of a public memorial service shortly. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society would be much appreciated. A look at some of Richler's work: Novels: The Acrobats, 1954; Son of a Smaller Hero, 1955; A Choice of Enemies, 1957; The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, 1959; The Incomparable Atuk (American title: Stick Your Neck Out), 1963; Cocksure, 1968; St. Urbain's Horseman, 1971; Joshua Then and Now, 1980; Solomon Gursky Was Here, 1989; Barney's Version, 1997 Non-fiction: Hunting Tigers Under Glass, 1972; Shovelling Trouble, 1972 (an American version of the above books was published as Notes on An Endangered Species in 1974); Home Sweet Home: My Canadian Album, 1984; Oh Canada, Oh Quebec, 1992 Screenplays: Life at the Top, 1965; The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (screen adaptation of novel), 1974; Fun With Dick and Jane, 1977; Joshua Then and Now (screen adaptation of novel), 1985 Children's Books: Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, 1975; Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur, 1987; Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case, 1985