Washington - Studs Terkel, the writer, radio-TV personality and social activist who, like Democratic presidential candidate, made Chicago his hometown, was dead at age 96, the Chicago Tribune reported late Friday.

He died after his health declined after a fall several weeks ago at home, the newspaper said.

"Studs Terkel was part of a great Chicago literary tradition that stretched from Theodore Dreiser to Richard Wright to Nelson Algren to Mike Royko," Mayor Richard M Daley was quoted as saying in a statement.

Daley noted that Turkel's radio show "was an important part of Chicago's cultural landscape for more than 40 years."

Turkel's most recent book, P. S. Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening, was scheduled for release this month.

As a young man during the Great Depression, Turkel got a job in one of president Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal agencies, then got a spot as a writer with the Works Progress Administration where he developed his writing and acting skills.

By the early 1950s, Turkel had worked in a variety of media, then got a television job as host of an interview programme, "Studs' Place."

But as an outspoken liberal during the McCarthy era, Turkel was blacklisted after signing "many petitions that were for unfashionable causes and never retracted," Turkel once said.

He began his writing career at age 55, turning out a series of books on the everyday work day, on race, on the American century, death, rebirth, and faith. (dpa)