If you randomly ask five people who are passing through the street to name a few writers or their famous novels, chances are at least four of them will mention some of the writers we listed below. The Tragic and Strange Deaths of the 10 Best Writers From Around The World Without a doubt, these are the writers that are regarded as the masters of the world literature and their books are still widely read. However, when it comes to the lives of these writers or poets, we don’t even know half as much as what we know about the characters that they created for their books. Of course, it is impossible to memorize the whole biography of their lives but there are some specific periods in every author’s life that could reflect their whole life and also the protagonists in their books. In this article, we will take a look at one of these periods, perhaps the most effective one: their last minutes on this earth, their death. While some of the deaths below may give us a clue about the writers’ struggles and mindset, some of them are pretty tragicomic, you’ll be surprised.
Sylvıa Plath (1932-1963)
“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Best known for her first and the last novel The Bell Jar, the famous American poet and writer Sylvia Plath struggled with depression through nearly her whole life. She attempted suicide by taking a number of sleeping pills when she was studying at the Smith College. Afterwards, she received a treatment and recovered. However, nearly after 10 years, in 1962, her husband left her for another woman, she had another breakdown and this time, it led her to death. In February 11, 1963, she put some cookies and milk in her children’s room and went to the kitchen. She also sealed the doors of the rooms where her children were and the kitchen, where she is, with wet towels, tape and clothes to prevent the gas from spreading over other rooms and harming her children. Then she went to kitchen and placed her head in the gas oven and the next morning, she was found dead with her head in the oven.When she was leaving, she left us the immortal babies of her beautifully troubled mind: her poems which are considered as the best examples for confessional poetry and also her only novel, The Bell Jar.
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
George Gordon Byron, known as Lord Byron, was one of the greatest poets in English literature and also a leading figure in Romantic movement with his lyrical poems. Also, he was a noble man, 6th Baron Byron. He had lived an aristocratic, wealthy and noble life, though his death was tragic. On April 1824, he fell ill and the doctors used leeches on his body to reduce his fever. Unfortunately, this kind of treatment caused him to get an infection, making his situation even worse and leading to his death.
Tennessee Wıllıams (1911-1983)
Tennessee Williams was regarded as one of the the greatest and well-known playwrights of the 20th century American Drama. His famous plays include, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. The famous playwright had a strange and unexpected death. According to the medical examiners, he swallowed a plastic cap of an eye drop or a nasal spray and it got lodged in his throat, causing him to choke to death. Nobody knows exactly how he did this but the general opinion is that he was drunk at that moment.
Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)
The American writer Sherwood Anderson was best known for his short stories in which he wrote in a different, unconventional style. He had a big influence on some of the greatest writers such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Being a writer who influenced the best writers of the American literature, Anderson had a similar fate with Williams. He unwittingly swallowed a toothpick, it harmed his internal organs, caused an infection and led to his death.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before”
-Edgar Allan Poe
Famous for his poems and short stories such as “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”,“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat” the gothic prince of the American Literature Edgar Allan Poe’s death was as mysterious, dark and spine-chilling as his writings. On September 27, 1849, he had left his home in Virginia, bound for Philadelphia to edit a book of a poet. Almost a week later, on October 3, he was found semi-conscious near a tavern on a street in Baltimore. The man who found him was a compositor called Joseph W. Walker. Walker told that Poe was wearing shabby clothes which clearly belongs to someone else and was not conscious enough to communicate effectively with Walker. When Walker asked him to give him a name of a person who could help Poe, Poe gave him the name of an editor who also had medical training; Joseph E. Snodgrass. Snodgrass came and took him to hospital where he died after 4 days. The official cause of his death was listed as “congestion of the brain” but the real reson behind his death is still suspicious. Also, it is known that Poe had repeated a name called “Reynolds” in his last minutes before he died. What was Poe doing in that street ? Why was he wearing someone else’s clothes? Whose clothes were they? Why was he semi-conscious? And what’s even more strange; Who was Reynolds and what did this person do to Poe? There’s still no right answer to any of these questions since nobody knows what happened to him.
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
The author of the philosphical and literary masterpieces such as The Stranger, The Myth of Sysphus, The Plague, the Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus was regarded as a spokesman of his generation especially after the World War II. By introducing the idea of “the absurd”, he made a great contribution to both literature and philosophy. He was also interested in politics and was never afraid to show his political views. On January 4,1960, Camus’ friend Michel Gallimard was driving Camus to Paris.Gallimard suddenly lost control of the car as the road was too icy and he slammed the car to a tree and both of them lost their lives. Camus’ death may seem simple but there are considerable number of people who believe a different theory on his death. According to this theory, the death of Camus was actually planned by Soviet spies. The spies used a special kind of equipment which would make a hole in the tyre of the car at speed. This plan was made by the Soviet Foreign Minister Dmitri Shepilov and the reason was an article written by Camus in which he attacked and criticized Shepilov three years ago.
Vırgınıa Woolf (1882-1941)
“Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!”
– Virginia Woolf, The Waves
One of the prominent modernists of the twentieth century, the feminist writer Virginia Woolf struggled with depression and nervous breakdowns through her whole life. She lost her mother when she was 13 and her half-sister two years later. These losses led to her first nervous breakdown. Shortly after her father’s death in 1904, her mental stability got worse and she was institutionalised. She was also sexually abused by her half-brothers, another factor that led her to depression. On 28 March 1941, she left a suicide note to his husband, filled the pockets of her coat with stones and walked into the River Ouse. On April 18, 1941, her dead body was found in the river.
Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
The Ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus was the first European dramatist whose plays were preserved which form the basis of western literature and civilization. The writer of the masterpieces such as Agamemnon, The Choephori and The Eumenides, the father of the tragedy died in a way that is even more tragic than his plays. According to the ancient sources, Aeschylus died when a turtle was dropped on his head by an eagle. Back in the 458 BC, eagles used to throw turtles to the rocks in order to break their shells and eat them so it is thought that this eagle mistook Aeschylus’ bald head for rock.
Orhan Veli Kanık (1914-1950)
Orhan Veli Kanık was one of the greatest poets in Turkish Literature. He made a radical revolution in Turkish literature by starting the Garip movement which advocated the use of simple, daily language in poems. Back then, poetry was an art form which includes figures of speech and appealed to higher and more educated class, Orhan Veli argued that poems should contain a plain language and should appeal to everyone, not just to a particular class. By leading the Garip movement, he made a groundbreaking change, rejecting the traditional forms and creating a new understanding of poetry. As a poet who made such important contribitions to the Turkish Literature, Orhan Veli had a cause of death that was both strange and tragic. On September 10, 1950 he fell down a hole made by the municipality when he was walking on the street in Ankara. His head got hurt but he didn’t care, thinking that it was not something important. He went to İstanbul two days later. On November 14, 1950, he got sick while having lunch at his friend’s house and was taken to hospital. Orhan Veli died of a brain aneurysm at the same night.
Beşir Fuad (1852-1887)
Beşir Fuad, one of the intellectuals in the Ottoman Empire, was regarded as the first essayist in Turkish literature, the first Turkish materialist and the critic. He introduced some of the significant and valuable Western writers such as Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Dickens, Diderot to Ottoman Empire by translating their works. Fuad’s death was one of the strangest and also the most frightening deaths of all times. In 1885, his son died at the age of two and a year after, his mother died. In February 5, 1887, he commited suicide by cutting his wrists. The interesting part about this is from the minute he cut his wrists until he died, he wrote down what happened and how he felt. This was regarded as the first experimental suicide in the Ottoman history. After this incident, commiting suicide became popular and as a result, plenty of people in the Ottoman Empire commited suicide in 6 months.
Dilan Bayındır
Project Management School Blog Editor
