Crime novelist and American author Frank Morrison Spillane, better known to his millions of fans as Mickey Spillane, creator of the fictional detective Mike Hammer, passed away at his home from cancer.

Spillane, who grew up in a tough blue-collar neighborhood, started his career as a writer for pulp magazines and comic books. He was paid twelve dollars a piece for a block of copy and could do as many as fifty blocks of copy a day.

Spillane, who began his novels on a manual Smith Corona, referred to himself as a writer, not an author, because a writer is someone who writes books to sell them. When a friend told Spillane he didn't care for the sex and violence in the crime novels, Spillane told him, "That's what sells, and I need the money."

When literary critics objected to the level of sex and violence in his novels, Spillane was quoted as saying, "Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar. If the public likes you, you're good."

Jane Spillane, his wife, said she could think of nothing she didn't adore about her husband. "He was the most generous man who walked the Earth," she said. "He was kind to everyone, even strangers."

About his death, Jane remarked, "He had cancer, and he was doing so well. Everybody thought he would be around for a long time."

Spillane also wrote two children's books, appeared in the films Ring of Fear and The Girl Hunters; the television show Colombo and series of commercials in a parody of his tough guy image for Miller Lite. He was 88.

"A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians." -- Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa -- intelligent and articulate; gifted and prolific as a rock musician and composer; guitarist, singer/songwriter, film director, and satirist -- lost his life to prostate cancer in 1993. During his musical career, he gained a cult-like following of fans by pushing the iconoclastic envelope and by mastering the technology needed to create his complex musical compositions.

One of Frank's sons, Dweezil Zappa, wants to set the record straight about his father. According to Dweezil, "There are so many things that are misunderstood or not recognized about my father's music because they've been filtered by people who work for magazines like Rolling Stone.

For example, Rolling Stone recently printed a poor, artist-rendering of Frank holding a joint.

Frank has always been well-known for being anti-drug yet they would rather continue to perpetuate a false image of him, even after death. It's irresponsible, it's obnoxious and offensive. I think it's time people know what Frank was really about, and they should discover it through his music."

To that end, Dweezil, with his brother Ahmet, are touring Zappa Plays Zappa and introducing a whole new generation to Frank Zappa's music. You can follow the tour at the Zappa Plays Zappa blog.