His literary agency confirms the writer had a doctor-assisted death on Friday in Hope, B.C. Kinsella, the B.C.-based author of Shoeless Joe, the award-winning novel that became the film Field of Dreams, has died at 81. Kinsella began writing as a child, winning a YMCA contest at age 14.W.P. His father, John, had played minor league baseball, and the young Kinsella fell for the game while playing with friends on sandlots in Edmonton. William Patrick Kinsella was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He published almost 30 books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and he won the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest honors. Much of Kinsella's work touched on baseball.

'His most famous book was the classic 'Shoeless Joe,' which inspired one of my favorite movies, 'Field of Dreams'.' 'His work has touched the lives of thousands of baseball fans across Canada and around the world,' Crawford said in a statement.

Scott Crawford, director of operations at the Canadian hall, said he was saddened to learn of the author's death. It looks like it will stand the test of time,' Kinsella said at the time. 'I wrote it 30 years ago, and the fact that people are still discovering it makes me proud. In 2011, the Canadian baseball Hall of Fame awarded him the Jack Graney Award for a significant contribution to the game of baseball in Canada. Kinsella, a bona fide baseball junkie, loved the movie and said he had tears in his eyes when he first saw it. Key turns of phrases in Kinsella's book - 'If you build it, they will come' and 'Go the distance' - have taken their place in literature's lexicon and among Hollywood's most memorable movie lines. Kinsella's 1982 novel 'Shoeless Joe' was later adapted for the screen as 'Field of Dreams,' an Oscar nominee for Best Picture in 1989. It became the blueprint for the 1989 Oscar-nominated movie, which starred Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and Ray Liotta. When he does, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other baseball players of yesteryear come to play. In the 1982 novel 'Shoeless Joe,' a farmer hears a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in his cornfields.

Assisted deaths became legal in Canada in June. Details about his health were not disclosed. His literary agent Carolyn Swayze said in a statement that Kinsella's death on Friday in Hope, British Columbia, was doctor-assisted. Kinsella, who blended magical realism and baseball in the book that became the smash-hit film 'Field of Dreams,' has died. VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Canadian novelist W.P.

Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella