Gordon S. Wood, a scholar who created an influential and debated narrative of the nation's early years of independence through such prize-winning works like "The Creation of the American Republic," has died.

Wood died June7 after he was hit by a car in a supermarket parking lot in East Providence, Rhode Island, police told The Associated Press.

RELATED: Bob Packwood, former Oregon senator who resigned after scandal, dies Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor emeritus at Brown University, authored dozens of books, and essays, with his research becoming standard references for conversations about the formation of the U.S. and the legacy of the revolution.