Writer John Nichols, author of 'The Milagro Beanfield War' with a social justice streak, dies at 83

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Writer John Nichols, best known for his populist novel “The Milagro Beanfield War," has died. He was 83. Nichols died Monday at home in Taos, New Mexico, amid declining health linked to a long-term heart condition, said daughter Tania Harris of Albuquerque. Nichols won early recognition with the 1965 publication of his offbeat love story “The Sterile Cuckoo,” later made into a movie starring Liza Minnelli. The coming-of-age book and subsequent movie were set amid private Northeastern colleges that were a familiar milieu to Nichols, who...