Prolific writer Chet Cunningham, whose "450 published books--Westerns, thrillers, military history, medical guides--included one that he wrote in less than a week because a publishing house was desperate to fill an unexpected hole in its production schedule," died March 14, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 88. Cunningham "credited his output to his daily deadline training as a journalist and to a work ethic that usually had him in his home office for 10 hours a day."
"That's what I do," Cunningham once told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "I write books."
Cunningham founded the nonprofit San Diego Book Awards in 1994 to honor local writers, both published and unpublished. Toni Noel, an author who served with him on the board of the book awards, told the Times: "Chet's legacy to beginning writers lives on in our hearts, and he will not soon be forgotten."