Edmund G. Love, 78; Author of “Subways Are for Sleeping”

Edmund G. Love, a novelist and author of the book on which the Broadway musical “Subways Are for Sleeping” was based, has died. He was 78.

Love died Thursday at St. Joseph Hospital after suffering a heart attack at his Flint apartment.

He published about 20 books, and his writings appeared in many anthologies and textbooks on writing.

“Subways Are for Sleeping” was adapted from Love’s 1957 book of the same title about experiences sleeping on New York subway trains when he could not afford lodging.

Love also was known for “The Situation in Flushing,” a 1965 book about a boy’s love of trains in the early 1900s. The book was excerpted in the Saturday Evening Post.

“Hanging On,” about how his family survived the Depression in Flint, has been used in University of Michigan classes on American history.

One of his stories inspired the feature film “Destination: Gobi.”

After Army service during World War II, Love headed a team that wrote military histories of the war in the Pacific Theater; he then became a free-lance writer.

Survivors include his wife, Ann, a son and four grandchildren.