Encinitas, Ca - William Wharton, the painter-turned-author whose first novel "Birdy" won the National Book Award and became a critically acclaimed move, has died. He was 82.

Wharton died Wednesday in Encinitas of an infection he contracted while being hospitalized for blood pressure problems, his son Matt du Aime told The New York Times.

Wharton was in his 50s and living as a painter in Paris when "Birdy" was published in 1979. The novel, about a shell-shocked World War II veteran who thinks he is a bird, fed on Wharton's own experience as a soldier and longtime keeper of canaries.

Critics praised Wharton for being able to construct a compelling, believable narrative out of such a seemingly inconceivable plot.

The 1984 film version of "Birdy" was directed by Alan Parker and starred Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine.

Two of Wharton's other novels were also made into movies: "Dad" (1981), about a middle-aged painter living in France, and "A Midnight Clear" (1982), about a peaceable Christmastime encounter between U.S. and German soldiers during World War II.