How Writers Die

[Paul Whybrow]

In this Guardian interview with novelist Nora Roberts, she states that:

“I’m told that Robert B Parker, one of my favourite authors, died at his computer. Bob – that’s just the way to go,” she says. “He was a workhorse. I’m the same.”

Dying on the job is a good way to go if you accept that someone was doing what they loved. Some of you will have heard of the recent sad and noble death of folk singer-songwriter David Olney:

David Olney, Poetic Americana Songwriter, Dead at 71

From Wikipedia: Olney died of an apparent heart attack during a performance onstage at the 30A Songwriter Festival in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, on January 18, 2020, at age 71. He was in the middle of his third song when he stopped, apologized and shut his eyes, according to fellow musician Scott Miller who was accompanying Olney. "David was playing a song when he paused, said 'I'm sorry' and put his chin to his chest. He never dropped his guitar or fell off his stool. It was as easy and gentle as he was," Miller said.

One of my Wild West heroes, Bat Masterson, died at his typewriter; he had a remarkable life.

Those who died by their own hand, include:

Gunshot: Ernest Hemingway, Richard Brautigan, Kurt Cobain, Hunter S. Thompson

Knife: Yukio Mishima, Elliott Smith

Hanging: David Foster Wallace, Roy Buchanan

Drugs: Abbie Hoffman, Sara Teasdale, Jane Aiken Hodge, Jerzy Kosiński, Arthur Koestler

Falling: Primo Levi, John Berryman

Drowning: Virginia Woolf, Hart Crane, Spalding Grey

Gas: Sylvia Plath, John Kennedy Toole, Anne Sexton


Some writers died in unexpected accidents:

Drowning: Shelley, Jeff Buckley

Road Traffic Accident: Jerry Rubin, Albert Camus, Harry Chapin, Roland Barthes, Margaret Mitchell, T.E. Lawrence

Fire: Zelda Fitzgerald

Choking: Tennessee Williams


Or, by murder: Joe Orton, Christopher Marlowe, Joy Adamson, Jim Koethe, Philip Marshall


Or, by natural causes:

Heart Attack: Stieg Larsson

Tuberculosis: Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë

Bone Cancer: Arthur Rimbaud

Lymphoma: Michael Crichton

Oral Cancer: Dr Seuss

Just as cynics say "Great career move" when a fading musician dies unexpectedly, leading to a massive boost in the sales of their albums, so it takes having The Grim Reaper as your literary agent for some writers to get anywhere.

I've mentioned the sad tale of John Kennedy Toole in previous threads, and it would have been fascinating to know what else he would have created. At least he hasn't been turned into a franchise operation with hired gun authors brought in to continue the series, as happened with Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander and the long-established James Bond and Sherlock Holmes stories.

11 Authors Who Became Famous After They Died

Writing this post has placed a chill in my heart. I’ve been close to death a few times, but am glad to have survived.

We writers should take care of our mental and physical health.

Given the choice of how to shuffle off my mortal coil, I favour Roger McGough’s ideas in his poem Let Me Die A Youngman's Death.

How about you?

No one wants to die editing their manuscript or reading another rejection email!

Let Me Die A Youngman's Death

Let me die a youngman's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death

Billy Wilder - Wikipedia​

 

[Eva Ulian]

I asked my dad what he wanted for dinner, then what he wanted to watch on TV and he said "La macchina del tempo" (The Time Machine) Those were his last words because when I came back in with his evening meal he had gone watching The Time Machine. He was 86. Nice way to die. I tried to resuscitate him by massaging his heart, but in the confusion I rubbed the right hand side instead of the left.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I asked my dad what he wanted for dinner, then what he wanted to watch on TV and he said "La macchina del tempo" (The Time Machine) Those were his last words because when I came back in with his evening meal he had gone watching The Time Machine. He was 86. Nice way to die. I tried to resuscitate him by massaging his heart, but in the confusion I rubbed the right hand side instead of the left.

I'm sorry for your loss, but at least he died peacefully. I've had two men die in front of me, both of heart attacks, one while singing 'Oh, Danny Boy' in a pub on New Year's Eve, the other furious that someone had dented his car, asking me if I'd seen who did it.

 

[Emurelda]

I'm studying the lives of Muslim Scientists and discovered some wonderful characters and titbits of details. But one death is specifically relevant to this thread that I'd like to share.

Al-Jahiz was a prolific writer. When he was young his mum gave him a tray of notebooks and told him to make a living out of writing. And so he did. His most famous work was his 7 volumes Book of Animals. And there it is claimed that he foreshadowed evolution without stating it as such when he made observations such as lice on dark hair was black and were lighter on older haired men with white hair.

But perhaps he also made a death out of writing too when at the age of 92 he died in his library when a pile of books fell on him!