CIVITELLA DELLA CHIANA, Italy, April 15 (UPI) -- The author of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" among more than 20 books, Muriel Spark, has died in an Italian hospital and was to be buried Saturday.
The mayor of Civitella della Chiana, where Spark was made an honorary citizen last year, confirmed her death Thursday, calling her "a simple person, affectionate and considerate."
Spark, who was born in Scotland, was 88, the BBC reports.
Her most famous work, 1962's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," was about a teacher who passed her views of sex and politics to students at a girls school.
It was turned into a play and subsequent movie for which Maggie Smith won an Academy Award for best actress in 1969.
The novelist and poet lived in the United States before moving to Italy.
Spark's work won her the T.S. Eliot prize in 1992 and the 1997 British Literature Prize.
