father, a drapery salesman, suffered Depression-era financial troubles and could not afford to support them.

At 17, Buchwald ran away to join the Marines and spent 3 1/2 years in the Pacific during World War II, attaining the rank of sergeant and spending much of his time editing a Corps newspaper.

After the war, he became managing editor of the campus humor magazine at Southern California and a columnist for the student paper. He dropped out in 1948 and headed for Paris on a one-way ticket.

He married American Ann McGarry in London on Oct. 12, 1952. The writer and one-time fashion coordinator for Neiman-Marcus later wrote a book with her husband, and they adopted three children.

She died in 1994. In 2000, Buchwald published his first novel, "Stella In Heaven: Almost a Novel," about a widower who can communicate with his deceased wife.

"He had a very stormy relationship with Ann," Bradlee said in an online chat presented by Washingtonpost.com. "They actually got divorced before she died, but I don't think he ever stopped loving her."

Buchwald wrote more than 30 books, including "Leaving Home," a 1995 memoir on his early years.

He won the Pulitzer, journalism's top honor, in 1982 for outstanding commentary. Four years later, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In November, the National Press Foundation honored "his grace, humor, astounding productivity and lifetime commitment to the craft" and was to present him with an award at a dinner in February.

Buchwald's right leg was amputated below the knee last January because of circulation problems, and he had a major stroke in 2000. He also said he battled depression in 1963 and 1987.

"You do get over it, and you get over it a better person," he once said of the illness.

Mike Wallace of CBS' "60 Minutes," who also fought depression, told the AP that when Buchwald learned it was affecting him, too, he called every night, even when Wallace was overseas on assignment. "He'd try to buck me up," Wallace said.

Buchwald is survived by a son, Joel Buchwald; daughters Jennifer Buchwald and Connie Buchwald Marks; sisters Edith Jaffe and Doris Kahme; and five grandchildren.

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Associated Press writer Connie Cass contributed to this report.