Author Graeme Gibson, longtime partner of Atwood, dead at 85

NEW YORK – Graeme Gibson, a Canadian novelist and conservationist and the longtime partner of Margaret Atwood, has died.

Gibson’s death was announced Wednesday by Doubleday, which has published both Gibson and Atwood. He was 85 and had been suffering from dementia. Atwood, whose novel “The Testaments” came out last week, said in a statement that she and other family members were “devastated” but also “grateful for his wise, ethical and committed life.”

Gibson wrote novels such as “Five Legs” and “Perpetual Motion,” and he was active with numerous organizations, whether as president of PEN Canada or serving on the council of the World Wildlife Fund Canada. His nonfiction book “Eleven Canadian Novelists” included interviews with Atwood and Alice Munro.

He had two sons with the publisher Shirley Gibson and a daughter with Atwood.