Umberto Eco, author of 'The Name of the Rose,' passes away

Italian author and academic Umberto Eco, who became one of Italy's best-known cultural exports and keenest cultural critics, died in Milan on Feb. 19 after a battle with cancerUmberto Eco catapulted to global literary fame three decades ago with "The Name of the Rose," a novel in which professorial erudition underpinned a medieval thriller that sold some 30 million copies in more than 40 languages.

The Italian author and academic who became one of Italy's best-known cultural exports and keenest cultural critics, died at home in Milan on Feb. 19 after a battle with cancer, according to a family member who asked not to be identified.

Eco's contribution to Italian literature was lauded by political and cultural figures alike. A memorial service will be held on Feb. 23 at Milan's Sforza Castle, a grand citadel that is overlooked by Eco's book-filled house.

French President François Hollande remembered Eco as "an immense humanist," adding that "libraries have lost an insatiable reader, universities a dazzling professor and literature a passionate writer."

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said Eco "united a unique intelligence of the past and an inexhaustible capacity to anticipate the future."

Italian author Elisabetta Sgarbi, who founded a publishing house last year with Eco and other Italian writers, called him "a great living encyclopedia" who taught young people "the capacity to love discoveries and marvels."

Author of books ranging from novels to scholarly tomes to essay collections, Eco was fascinated with the obscure and the mundane, and his books were both engaging narratives and philosophical and intellectual exercises. The bearded, heavy-set scholar, critic and novelist took on the esoteric theory of...