DIED. Bruce Chatwin, 48, British travel writer and novelist best known for his 1977 work, In Patagonia, which recounted a trek through Argentina and Chile; of a rare bone-marrow disease contracted from a plant fungus during a trip to western China; in Nice, France. In 1966 Chatwin quit his job as director of impressionist art at Sotheby's, the London auction house, to study and become a writer.