Michael Kernan, 78; Longtime Washington Post Style Writer

Michael Kernan, a writer whose graceful versatility helped define the tone and literary flair of the Washington Post’s Style section, has died. He was 78.

Kernan, who also published two books and wrote more than 100 articles for Smithsonian magazine, including the “Around the Mall and Beyond” column, died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Bennington, Vt.

Plucked from his job as a reporter with the Post’s Metro section, Kernan was named to the original Style staff and wrote for that section for 20 years.

“He was a glorious writer who could make anything interesting,” said Mary Hadar, former editor of Style.

In his memoir, “A Good Life,” Ben Bradlee, a former executive editor of the Post, described Kernan as a “poet in newspaperman’s clothing.”

Kernan wrote with a wry, supple voice, often enlivened by first-person asides, that subtly concealed the breadth of his research. Returning from his assignments, he tore pages from his notebook, spread them on his desk and began to write. He would leave a mistake in each story for his editors to remove -- making them less inclined to touch his favorite passages.

Michael Jenkins Kernan Jr. was born April 29, 1927, in Utica, N.Y. After graduating from Harvard University in 1949, Kernan joined the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times. From there, he went to the Redwood City Tribune in California, where he worked as an editor and reporter. He joined the Post as a city editor in 1967, but his writing quickly brought him notice and led to his assignment in 1969 to the Style section.

In 1977, he published “The Violet Dots,” a nonfiction account of a British soldier’s harrowing experiences in the Battle of the Somme in World War I. A novel, “The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals,” came out in 1994.

After retiring in 1989, he moved to Baltimore and wrote for the Smithsonian and other publications. He moved to Vermont in 2002.

Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Margot Starr Kernan; three children, Nathan Kernan, Lisa Kernan and Nicholas Kernan; a sister; and two grandchildren.