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Best-selling author Iain Banks passed away just a few weeks after he announced that he was diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer. He was 59. Bank's passing was announced by his wife, author and horror film curator, Adele Hartley.

"Iain died in the early hours this morning. His death was calm and without pain," she wrote on Banks' website on June 9. Following the author's passing, publisher Little Brown said in a statement, "Just three weeks ago he was presented with finished copies of his last novel, 'The Quarry', and enjoyed celebration parties with old friends and fans across the publishing world." The publishing company also referred to the author as "an irreplaceable part of the literary world" and "one of the country's best-loved novelists."

Banks, who began writing novels since early age, shocked his fans when he announced in April that he was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. The author told his fans that he probably would not have much time left. He also said that he had asked his longtime partner if she could "do me the honor of becoming my widow."

According to Daily Mail, the pair got married in a humanist ceremony in the Scottish Highlands over the Easter weekend and jetted to Venice and Paris for honeymoon. As he received medical treatment, he updated his fans with his condition and thanked them for the endless support via his website. "I feel treasured. I am deeply flattered and touched, and I can't deny I've been made to feel very special indeed," he wrote.

Banks published his first novel "The Wasp Factory" in 1984. He released his first sci-fi novel three years later. In 2008, Banks was named as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. His final novel "The Quarry", which will be released on June 20, was written after he was diagnosed with the disease in March. The book tells a story of a terminal cancer patient who is cared by his 18-year-old son.