Charles Sprawson, author of cult classic on swimming, has died

The author of perhaps the most influential book on swimming ever has died.

A friend confirmed yesterday that Charles Sprawson, author of the 1992 book Haunts of the Black Masseur, passed away at the age of seventy-eight.

Haunts was Sprawson’s only book, though Alex Preston, the friend who reported his death, said he was in the process of writing a book about Slovenian endurance swimmer Martin Strel.

The book traced great swimming heroes, explored the mindset of swimmers, and ultimately inspired the popularity of “narrative non-fiction about the natural world,” according to the Guardian.

Read more about Sprawson and his cult classic in obituaries in the Guardian and the Bookseller.