David Rakoff has died.

I'm really sorry to read about the death of this wonderful writer, who was only 47. Over and over, I've listened to his gentle, humorous voice reading his brilliant essays in "Don't Get Too Comfortable" and "Half Empty" and "Fraud."

Mr. Rakoff’s cancer had first appeared when he was 22 and recently reappeared as a tumor in his left shoulder.

The return of his cancer, and the possibility that his arm and shoulder would have to be amputated, were the subjects of the concluding essay in Mr. Rakoff’s most recent collection, “Half Empty” (2010), a darkly comic paean to negativity.