Paul Quarrington (PHOTO: Irene Duma, Strange Duck Media)

TORONTO -­ Paul Quarrington, the award-winning Toronto author of Whale Music and King Leary has died. He was 56 years old. According to a posting on his website, Quarrington succumbed to his battle with lung cancer early Thursday morning at his Toronto home, surrounded by friends and family. Quarrington was best known for his Governor General's Literary Award-winning Whale Music in 1989, later turned into a movie that was also met with critical acclaim, and included a soundtrack by the Reostatics, who he repeatedly collaborated with over the following years. His multiple talents also included writing plays, songs and movies. His band, Porkbelly Futures, was well known on the Canadian roots music circuit. Quarrinton's most recent novel, The Ravine, was published in 2008 and was long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His previous novel, Galveston, was short-listed for the Giller. His 1987 novel King Leary, which earned Stephen Leacock Medal for humour writing, won CBC's Canada Read competition 2008. It was defended by Dave Bidini of the Reostatics. Quarrington's non-fiction writing includes books on what were his favourite topics and hobbies, such as fishing, hockey and music. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in May and had spent his last months completing a number of artistic endeavours, including a solo CD and his memoir Cigar Box Banjo, according to his website. In a video tribute for a tribute to Quarrington at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto in October, Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy expressed his love and gratitude for the author's work, and said King Leary was the novel that finally got his son reading. When they finally met, Cuddy said, he was embarrassed at the way he acted. "I think I overgushed on Paul." In another tribute, Canadian film producer Robert Lantos remembered Quarrington as a modest man who could tell other people's stories in a way other authors could not do. "It was never about him," Lantos said. "You get a lot of writers, the characters are alibis for themselves, for their own chest beating and 'look how smart I am'. You never saw that with Paul." Quarrinton also taught at Humber College and University of Toronto, and sat on the Board of Directors for the Fringe Theatre Festival in Toronto.