‘Bridges of Madison County’ author Robert James Waller dies at 77

Robert James Waller, whose bestselling, bittersweet 1992 novel “The Bridges of Madison County” was turned into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood and a Broadway musical, has died in Texas, according to a longtime friend. He was 77.

Waller died early Friday at his home in Fredericksburg, Texas, said his friend Scott Cawelti of Cedar Falls, Iowa. He had been fighting multiple myeloma, a form of cancer.

In “Bridges,” which Waller famously wrote in 11 days, the roving National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid spends four days romancing Francesca Johnson, a war bride from Italy married to a no-nonsense Iowa farmer.

Waller’s novel reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed on it for over three years; the Eastwood-directed 1995 movie grossed $182 million worldwide. He wrote a sequel titled “A Thousand Country Roads: An Epilogue to the Bridges of Madison County.”

Many critics made fun of “Bridges,” calling it sappy and cliche-ridden.

“Waller depicts their mating dance in plodding detail, but he fails to develop them as believable characters,” Eils Lotozo wrote in the New York Times in 1993. “Instead, we get a lot of quasi-mystical business about the shaman-like photographer who overwhelms the shy, bookish Francesca with ‘his sheer emotional and physical power.’”

Readers, however, bought more than 12 million copies in 40 languages. “Bridges” turned the unknown writer into a multimillionaire and made Madison County, Iowa, an international tourist attraction.

“I really do have a small ego,” Waller told the New York Times in 2002. “I am open to rational discussion. If you don’t like the book and can say why, I am willing to listen. But the criticism turned to nastiness. ... I was stunned.”

The novel prompted couples across the world to marry on Madison County’s covered bridges. Around the town of Winterset, population 4,200 (also the birthplace of John Wayne), tourists arrived by the busloads, buying “Bridges” T-shirts, perfume and postcards. Thousands signed in at the Chamber of Commerce office, where they could use restrooms marked “Roberts” and “Francescas.”

After the novel’s success, Waller left Iowa, where he had grown up, and moved to a ranch in Alpine, Texas, 50 miles from the nearest town. He also divorced his wife of 36 years, with whom he had a daughter, Rachel Waller, and found a new partner in Linda Bow, who worked on the property as a landscaper.

Waller grew up in Rockford, Iowa, and he was educated at the University of Northern Iowa and Indiana University, where he received his doctorate. He taught management, economics, and applied mathematics at the University of Northern Iowa from 1968 to 1991. Waller’s seven books include “Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend,” which unseated “Bridges” on the bestseller list, “Border Music” and “Puerto Vallarta Squeeze.”

A musical was made of “The Bridges of Madison County” in 2014 starring Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale with a score by Jason Robert Brown, but it closed after just 137 performances on Broadway. A national tour starring Elizabeth Stanley kicked off in 2015.

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UPDATES:

9:10 a.m.: This article was updated with confirmation of Robert Waller’s death by his friend Scott Cawelti and details of his career and life and the success of “Bridges of Madison County” and its offshoots.

This article was originally published at 8:20 a.m.