British best-selling author David Cornwell , better known as John le Carre whose Cold War-era spy novels transformed the espionage genre, died over the weekend, his literary agent said. He was 89 years old. His family said le Carre died Saturday night in Cornwall, Britain, from pneumonia after a short battle with the illness. Jonny Geller, the chief executive of The Curtis Brown Group and le Carre's literary agent for ...