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Literary deaths: "Lionel Johnson [1867-1902] British Poet - Fell off a barstool during a bout of heavy drinking..." & Other Disturbing Deaths in the Literary World.

  • Euripides [480-406 B.C.] Greek Playwright - Mauled by a pack of wild dogs owned by Archelaus, the King of Macedonia.
  • Dante Alighieri [1256-1321] Italian Poet - Fell ill and died about an hour after completing The Divine Comedy.
  • Francis Villon [1431-1464?] French Poet - May have been attacked by a mob of bandits or hanged by authorities after a brief prison stay for murdering a priest. Take your pick. Left France at the age of 32 and was never heard from again. “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”
  • Christopher Marlowe [1564-1593] English Playwright - Stabbed with a dagger during a bar fight at the inn of the Widow Bull in Deptford. Was it an argument over the bill?
  • Richard Lovelace [1618-1658] English Poet - Believed to have died of consumption “in a very mean lodging” in Gunpowder Alley, Shoe Lane. “I could not love thee, dear, so much/Loved I not honour more.”
  • Thomas Chatterton [1752-1770] English Poet - Killed self by drinking arsenic at the age of 17. Apparently in despair over lack of recognition. Gained popularity after death. [Editor’s Note: Chatterton’s father was well known around town for a rather dubious talent - he could put his entire fist in his mouth.]
  • Lord Byron [1788-1824] English Poet - Killed by doctors during a “blood letting” attempt to cure malarial fever. Last words: “I must sleep now.”
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley [1792-1822] English Poet - Drowned while sailing near Spezia, Italy, and was cremated on the beach. [Editor’s Note: Shelley’s heart wouldn’t burn and was given to his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley as a souvenir.]
  • Honore De Balzac [1799-1850] French Author - Believed to have choked on too much coffee.
  • Edgar Allan Poe [1809-1849] American Author - Died of “acute congestion of the brain” several days after he was discovered lying unconscious in a Baltimore street, wearing someone else’s tattered clothes.
  • Leo Tolstoy [1828-1910] Russian Author - Gave away entire fortune, froze to death in a railroad station on a cold winter night.
  • Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914?] American Author - Disappeared in Mexico while reporting on the Pancho Villa’s rebellion. May have been murdered by bandits.
  • Arthur Rimbaud [1854-1891] French Poet - A probable victim of syphilis, had right leg amputated, became paralyzed and gradually slipped into permanent coma.
  • Lionel Johnson [1867-1902] British Poet - Fell off a barstool during a bout of heavy drinking, according to legend.
  • Alfred Jarry [1873-1907] French Dramatist - Paralyzed in both legs at the age of 34. Last request was for a toothpick.
  • Sherwood Anderson [1876-1941] American Author - Complications of peritonitis in Colon, Panama, after ingesting a toothpick along with a hors d’oeuvre at a cocktail party.
  • Jack London [1876-1916] American Author - A “raging alcoholic,” died of uremia brought on by a morphine overdose at the age of 40.
  • Vachel Lindsay [1879-1931] American Poet - Killed self by drinking disinfectant.
  • Virginia Woolf [1882-1941] British Author & Critic - Filled pockets with stones and drowned self in the river Ouse.
  • Franz Kafka [1883-1924] - Died of tuberculosis and was buried in Prag-Straschintz. Had requested that all of his work be destroyed after his death.
  • Ezra Pound [1885-1972] - Arrested for treason after World War II for broadcasting Fascist propaganda, declared mentally ill and committed to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington D.C. Released in 1958 and died a semi-recluse in Italy. [Editor’s Note: Born in Hailey, Idaho, Pound’s middle name was Loomis.]
  • Maxwell Bodenheim [1893-1954] American Author - Shot with a .22 rifle by an insane dishwasher.
  • Sergei Esenin [1895-1925] Russian Poet - Cut wrists, wrote a final poem in own blood (called “Do svidania drug moi” or “Goodbye my friend”) and hanged self in a hotel room in Leningrad.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald [1896-1940] American Author - Legendary boozer suffered a heart attack while working as a screenwriter in Hollywood for a couple of hundred bucks a week. According to John O’Hara, Fitz died “a prematurely old little man haunting bookshops unrecognized.” [Editor’s Note: Zelda died in a fire at an Asheville, North Carolina, mental hospital in 1948.]
  • William Faulkner [1897-1962] American Author - Suffered a heart attack after falling off a horse.
  • Hart Crane [1899-1932] American Poet - While en route to New York aboard the S.S. Orizaba, leapt into the Caribbean Sea; reputedly said “Good-bye everybody.”
  • Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961] American Author - Blew brains out with a hunting rifle in Ketchum, Idaho.
  • Thomas Wolfe [1900-1938] American Author - Suffered a cerebral infection, leaving an eight-foot-high manuscript for his editors to sort through. Buried in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, North Carolina. “… the last voyage, the longest, the best.”

  • Nathanael West [1903-1940] American Author - Car accident killed West and his wife after he ignored a stop sign. His buddy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, died the same weekend.
  • Robert E. Howard [1906-1936] Sword & Sorcery Writer - Spent all-night vigil at bedside of comatose mother and died of self-inflicted gunshot in the morning; mother died that same night.
  • Malcolm Lowry [1909-1957] British Author - A “sleeping-pill suicide,” fell dead with a plate in hand while starting in on a midnight snack, according to writer Donald Newlove. “… and how alike are the groans of love, to those of dying.”
  • Tennessee Williams [1911-1983] American Playwright - Choked on a bottle cap while trying to get hands on some barbiturates.
  • Albert Camus [1913-1960] French Author - Single-car automobile crash while returning to Paris from the South of France.
  • John Berryman [1914-1972] American Poet - Jumped from a bridge over the Mississippi River; reputedly waved at passersby on way down.
  • Dylan Thomas [1914-1953] Welsh Poet - Alcohol poisoning during a lecture tour of the United States. “I’ve had 18 straight whiskies … I think that’s the record.”
  • Roland Barthes [1915-1980] French Critic & Philosopher - Run over by laundry truck outside the College de France. “Literature is the question minus the answer.”
  • Jack Kerouac [1922-1969] American Author - Abdominal hemorrhage at mother’s home in St. Petersburg, Florida, while watching “The Galloping Gourmet.”
  • Flannery O’Connor [1924-1964] American Author - Became gradually immobilized by lupus and died at the age of 40.
  • Yukio Mishima [1925-1970] Japanese Author - Committed seppuku (hara-kiri) and was beheaded during failed attempt to overtake a Japanese garrison.
  • Anne Sexton [1928-1974] American Poet - Committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage of her home.
  • Sylvia Plath [1932-1963] American Poet - Stuck head in a kitchen oven.
  • Jerzy Kosinski [1933-1991] Polish-Born American Author - Think he committed suicide by placing a plastic bag over his head in the bathtub. Can anyone else confirm this?
  • Richard Brautigan [1935-1984] American Author - Self-inflicted gunshot wound; body wasn’t discovered for several weeks.
  • Seth Morgan [1949-1990] American Author - After drinking in a New Orleans bar, boarded motorcycle with girlfriend and crashed into a cement embankment below a New Orleans bridge.
  • John O’Brien [1960-1994] American Author - Committed suicide just two weeks after selling the movie rights to “autobiographical novel” Leaving Las Vegas. Book served as suicide note. [Editor’s Note: Couldn’t find the actual dates of his birth and death. Anyone out there know?]

  1. wintersskin reblogged this from forestgraves
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    Personal favourite: Honore De Balzac [1799-1850] French Author - Believed to have choked on too much coffee.
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    My favorites are:...Sherwood Anderson
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