Writers. Go figure. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. But what happens when they go to the “without them” category?
Those who went to the other side. It seems like writers often dream up strange deaths for their characters. But sometimes, their own endings turned out to be even stranger than fiction.
Well how about these good authors? Here are some stories of how they all fell to the wayside. Sideways.
Sherwood Anderson – In 1941, Anderson swallowed a toothpick hidden in an olive from his martini. It pierced his intestine, caused infection, and killed him.
Aeschylus – The Father of Tragedy met a tragic end: an eagle dropped a tortoise on his bald head, mistaking it for a rock.
Gustav Kobbé – This music critic was sailing in New York in 1918 when a low-flying seaplane clipped his boat’s mast and fatally struck him.
Margaret Wise Brown – Author of Goodnight Moon kicked her leg after surgery to show she was recovering. The playful gesture dislodged a blood clot that killed her.
Tennessee Williams – Originally reported to have choked on a bottle cap in 1983, Williams actually died from an intolerance to sleeping pills.
Edgar Allan Poe – Found delirious on a Baltimore street in 1849, wearing another man’s clothes, Poe muttered “Reynolds” before dying. Theories range from murder to rabies to voter fraud.
Mark Twain – Twain predicted he would die with Halley’s Comet. In 1910, just one day after the comet’s closest pass, he did.
Dan Andersson – In 1920, the Swedish poet checked into a hotel room treated with cyanide gas for pests. Staff failed to air it out. He never woke up.
Francis Bacon – Experimenting with freezing meat, Bacon stuffed snow into a chicken. He caught pneumonia in the cold and died days later.
They say life is stranger than fiction. And it sure can write some pretty strange endings.
But as with everything. Maybe the moral here is simple. Never underestimate olives, tortoises, or frozen chicken.
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“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.” — Arthur Conan Doyle
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“Death is nature’s way of telling you to slow down.” — Dick Sharples
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“Each man is his own last resort.” — Henry David Thoreau
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