Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born author who received death threats from Iran in the 1980s

Salman Rushdie, Novelist Who Drew Death Threats, on Ventilator After New York Stabbing

Salman Rushdie, the USA TODAY bestselling author whose writing led to death threats, was attacked Friday

as he was about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York

suffering stab wounds to the neck and abdomen.

Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie of The Wylie Agency, said the writer was on a ventilator Friday evening,

with a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and an eye he was likely to lose.