SOURCE: "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Author Michael Dorris Dies," in Associated Press, April 14, 1997.

[In the following obituary, the writer summarizes Dorris's literary achievements.]

Michael Dorris, who told the story of his adopted son's battle with fetal alcohol syndrome in his award-winning book The Broken Cord, has died, an apparent suicide, police said. He was 52.

The Concord [New Hampshire] Monitor reported that Dorris was found Friday afternoon in a motel room and said Dorris apparently suffocated himself using a plastic bag.

Police Lt. Paul Murphy confirmed the cause of death was apparent suicide, but would give no details.

Dorris and author Louise Erdrich, with whom he wrote the 1991 best-selling novel The Crown of Columbus, were divorcing.

Dorris, who held degrees from Georgetown and Yale universities, had been on leave as an English professor at Dartmouth College, where, as an anthropology professor, he founded the Native American Studies department in 1972 and...