Strange Author Deaths | Guy Portman's Blog

7 Bizarre Author Deaths

Oct 21 2016

Last year I dedicated a blog post to 10 bizarre author deaths. This is the second and final instalment. Here are 7 more author deaths that could be described as bizarre. They are presented in chronological order.

Euripides(480 B.C. – 406 B.C.)

Euripides was an Ancient Greek tragedian. It was feelings of embitterment over his defeats in the Dionysia playwriting competitions that led him to move to Macedonia. There are a number of different theories as to how he met his demise there. One is that his first experience of the cold during the Macedonian winter killed him. Others have suggested he was killed by hunting dogs, or even torn apart by women. Euripides had a reputation for being something of a misogynist.

PetroniusCirca 27 A.D. – 66 A.D.

Petronius is widely accepted to be the author of the scathing satirical novel Satyricon. The book ridiculed the pretensions of Rome’s newly rich. In 66 A.D. Petronius was accused of plotting to kill the Emperor Nero. Instead of waiting for his sentence, he decided to commit suicide by having his veins opened and then bound up again. The bandages were bandaged to prolong life, so that Petronius could spend time conversing with friends and enjoying a sumptuous banquet, after which he went to bed to die in his sleep.

Christopher Marlowe(February 26th 1564 – May 30th 1593)

The exact circumstances surrounding playwright Christopher Marlowe’s death remain a mystery. He met his demise when companion Ingram Frizer stabbed him with a knife. The official story is that an argument broke out over a drinks bill, resulting in Marlowe attacking Frizer with a knife, only to be disarmed and dispatched with a single thrust of the blade to the eye. Some have argued that his death was a political assassination whilst others claim it was because he was deemed a danger to the state, due to his reputed atheistic beliefs.

Sir Francis Bacon(January 22nd 1561 – April 9th 1626)

Sir Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, scientist, statesman, orator, essayist and author. The 65-year-old Bacon was purportedly travelling in his carriage in the midst of a snowstorm in Highgate when it occurred to him that snow would be an ideal way to preserve and insulate meat. Bacon immediately purchased a gutted chicken and attempted to prove his theory by stuffing the bird with snow. Unfortunately these actions resulted in pneumonia. He perished several days later.

Mark Twain(November 30th 1835 – April 21st 1910)

Mark Twain is regarded as the father of American literature. He was born shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet. Twain was convinced that he would meet his end when the comet next returned to earth. He famously said, ‘I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming next year, and I expect to go out with it.’ On April 21st 1910 Twain’s prophetic declaration came true, when he died of a heart attack, merely one day after the comet’s closest proximity to earth.

Hart Crane crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932)

Crane was an influential American poet who wrote modernist poetry that was highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. Crane was a heavy drinker prone to depression. It was while on board a steamship en route to New York that he jumped overboard into the Gulf of Mexico. Witnesses believed his intentions were suicidal because several reported that he exclaimed ‘Goodbye, everybody!’ prior to throwing himself overboard. His body was never recovered.

Ödön von Horváth horvath (December 9th, 1901 – June 1st 1938)

Von Horváth was an Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist. He met his demise when a falling branch from a tree killed him during a thunderstorm on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. A few days earlier, von Horváth had said to a friend: ‘I am not so afraid of the Nazis … There are worse things one can be afraid of, namely things one is afraid of without knowing why.’ A few years earlier, von Horváth wrote a poem about lightning. Yes, thunder, that it can do. And bolt and storm. Terror and destruction.

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Click here to read Bizarre Author Deaths Part I.

Bizarre Author Deaths IX

Jun 27 2014

I have stated on several occasions that there would be no further instalments to the Bizarre Author Deaths series. However, it has since come to my attention that I have omitted two authors. Here they are.

Petronius

Circa 27 AD – 66 AD

Notable works: Satyricon.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of the Emperor Nero. Petronius belonged to a group of pleasure seekers whom Seneca described as ‘men who turn night into day’. He also held a number of official positions, including governor of the province of Asia, as well as serving on The Consul, the highest position in Rome. Petronius is widely accepted to be the author of the satirical novel Satyricon, a scathing satire, which ridiculed the pretensions of Rome’s newly rich. Satyricon went beyond the literary limitations of its day by concentrating less on plot than character and by portraying detailed speech and behaviour.

Petronius’s high position purportedly made him an object of envy. In 66 AD, Tigellinus, the commander of the Emperor’s guard, accused him of plotting to kill the Emperor Nero. Petronius was arrested. Instead of waiting for his sentence, the author decided on the slow process of committing suicide by having his veins opened and then bound up again. The bandages were bandaged to prolong life, so that Petronius could spend the last hours as of his life conversing with friends, dealing with his slaves and enjoying a sumptuous banquet, after which he went to bed to die in his sleep. Tacitus wrote of the author’s demise, ‘so that his death, though forced upon him, should seem natural.’

Yukio Mishima

January 14th 1925 – November 25th 1970

Notable works: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Spring Snow.

Yukio Mishima was the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka – a novelist, playwright, poet, short story writer, essayist and critic. His literary output included thirty four novels, twenty five books of short stories and fifty plays. Considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the Twentieth century, Mishima was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mishima’s writing was a fusion of modern and traditional aesthetics that focused on subjects such as death, sexuality and politics. Many of his most famous works were translated into English, resulting in the iconic author becoming popular in both Europe and America.

Mishima was a nationalist with a commitment to the code of the Samurai (bushido). In 1968 he formed Tatenokai or ‘shield society’, a private militia sworn to protect the Emperor of Japan. On November 25th the author and four members of Tatenokai barricaded themselves in the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s self-defence forces. Having delivered a speech from the balcony to the soldiers below, Mishima committed Seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide consisting of disembowelment followed by beheading.

Tatenokai member, Masakatsu Morita, who was acting as Mishima’s accomplice, failed in his decapitation duties, resulting in another member severing the author’s head. According to Mishima’s biographer and translator John Nathan the author was using the coup as a pretext for the ritual suicide he had long dreamed of.

Click here to read Bizarre Author Deaths VIII

Bizarre Author Deaths VIII

Mar 07 2014

Yes I am aware that I stated fairly emphatically four weeks ago that there would be no further instalments to the Bizarre Author Deaths series. However it transpired that I had overlooked two worthy inclusions.

Albert Camus

(November 7th 1913 – January 4th 1960)

Notable works: The Rebel, The Stranger & The Plague

The Algerian born Albert Camus was a Nobel Prize winning author, journalist and philosopher, who contributed to the rise of absurdist philosophy. Camus is perhaps best remembered today for his seminal work, The Plague, a philosophical work of fiction about a plague epidemic that explores themes such as destiny and solidarity.

In January 1960 the forty-six-year-old writer was about to embark on a train journey from Provence to Paris, when his publisher and friend, Michel Gallimand, persuaded him to take the train instead. The author never made it to Paris, as Gallimand lost control of the car near Sens, killing Camus instantly.

Fifty-one years later a Milanese newspaper claimed Camus had been killed in an elaborate plot orchestrated by the KGB, due to the author’s relentless criticism of the Soviet Union. Examples of Camus’s hatred for the Soviets included a scathing attack in his work, L’Homme Révolté (The Rebel), as well as an anti-Soviet speech in 1957 on the anniversary of the previous year’s Hungarian Revolution. However most analysts have dispelled this conspiracy theory as being false and fanciful.

Gustav Kobbé

(March 4th 1857 – July 27th 1918)

Notable works: Miriam, The Pianolist & The Complete Opera Book

American music critic and author Gustav Kobbé had a successful career contributing music and drama related articles to a host of influential magazines and periodicals. After starting his career as co-editor of the Musical Review, he went on to become the music critic of the New York Herald. Kobbé was on the verge of international fame with his nearly completed, The Complete Opera Book, when he met his demise.

On July 27th 1918, Kobbé, an avid sailor, was out sailing in the Great South Bay off Bay Shore, New York, when an errant seaplane coming into land, misjudged its descent and struck his boat, killing the opera critic instantly.

Kobbé’s almost finished work, The Complete Opera Book, was published posthumously in the United States in 1919 and the UK in 1922. To this day it remains the opera lover’s bible.

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My second book, Necropolis, ~~is due for release on April 24th. Necropolis~~ is a work of humorous dark fiction about a psychopath, who works for the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council. Further information to follow …

Click here to read Bizarre Author Deaths VII

Bizarre Author Deaths VII

Feb 07 2014

This is likely to be the final instalment of my Bizarre Author Deaths series. I have more or less exhausted this fascinating if morbid subject matter, and there will be no further additions until there is a fresh batch of deaths.

Sherwood Anderson

(September 13th 1876 – March 8th 1941)

Notable works: Winesburg, Ohio & Dark Laughter

The Ohio born Sherwood Anderson is today remembered more for his influence on the following generation of writers than for his own writing efforts. Ignoring the literary devices of his era, Anderson wrote portraits of American life in a precise, simple and unsentimental writing style that others would become more famous for than he.

Though many of his works were published posthumously, Anderson did find fame during his lifetime with his interrelated short story sequence, Winesburg, Ohio, published in 1919, and his bestselling novel, Dark Laughter.

The writer is also remembered for the bizarre nature of his death. In 1941 at the age of sixty-four, Anderson fell ill with abdominal pains on a cruise to South America. He was rushed to hospital in Colón, Panama, where he was diagnosed with peritonitis and died. The autopsy revealed that he had swallowed a toothpick, which had damaged his internal organs, causing the infection. It is widely assumed that this occurred when the author was eating the olive from a martini.

Pietro Aretino

(April 20th 1492 – October 21st 1556)

Notable works: La contigiana & La talenta

This Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist was a major influence on both contemporary art and politics, in addition to being regarded as the inventor of modern literate pornography. An unrepentant satirist, Aretino is perhaps best remembered for his humorous and scathing letters, in which he attacked both the authorities and a host of aristocrats. This practice earned the writer fame, numerous enemies and the nickname, flagello dei principi or scourge of princes.

Ironically the humourist purportedly met his demise due to laughing himself to death. There has been much speculation over how this occurred. One version is that he was at a party, when a guest told Aretino a humorous joke, involving the writer’s own sisters (possibly imaginary ones) and the brothel that they were employed at. Rather than taking offense, Aretino found the story so amusing that he was unable to stop laughing, and falling back in his chair, died of suffocation.

Click here to read Part VI

Bizarre Author Deaths VI

Jan 24 2014

This week sees the penultimate instalment of the Bizarre Author Deaths series.

Sir Francis Bacon

(January 22nd 1561 – April 9th 1626)

Notable works: Novum Organum, De augmentis, Nova Atlantis

Sir Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, scientist, statesman, orator, essayist and author. A highly successful career saw the multi-talented Bacon serve as both Attorney General and Lord Chancellor. Today Bacon is remembered as an important figure in scientific methodology and natural philosophy. His accolades include being widely accepted as the creator of empiricism, in addition to establishing popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often referred to as the Baconian method.

Sixty-five year old Bacon purportedly met his demise when travelling in his carriage in the midst of a snowstorm in Highgate, it occurred to him that snow would be an ideal way to preserve and insulate meat. He immediately purchased a gutted chicken and attempted to prove his theory by stuffing the bird with snow. Unfortunately these actions resulted in pneumonia, and as he was too ill to return to his residence, he retired to the Earl of Arundel’s house in Highgate where he perished several days later.

Christopher Marlowe

(February 26th 1564 – May 30th 1593)

Notable works: Edward the Second, Hero and Leander, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Poet, translator and dramatist Christopher Marlowe was the most famous tragedian of his time. His popular plays influenced a host of playwrights, including William Shakespeare. Little is known about the private life of this famous proponent of blank verse, a form of poetry that utilises a regular metrical form with unrhymed lines.

To this day the exact circumstances surrounding Marlowe’s death remain a mystery. The renowned playwright met his premature demise at the age of twenty-nine when he was stabbed with a knife by companion Ingram Frizer. The official story is that an argument broke out over a drinks bill, resulting in Marlowe attacking Frizer with a knife, only to be disarmed and despatched with a single thrust of the blade to the eye. Some have argued that the playwright’s death was in fact a political assassination, perhaps related to his work as a spy, whilst others claim it was because Marlowe was deemed a danger to the state, due to his reputed atheistic beliefs.

Click here to read Part V.

Bizarre Author Deaths V

Jan 10 2014

This week’s blog post is dedicated to two more bizarre author deaths. Initially I did not envisage that this author series would have so many instalments, but with the multitude of bizarre/mysterious author deaths that have occurred down the years, I anticipate that there will be at least a further two instalments at some point.

Edgar Allan Poe

(January 19th 1809 – October 7th 1849)

Notable works: The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, Tamerlan and Other Poems

Poe was an author, poet, editor and literary critic, whose tales of mystery and the macabre are still widely read to this day. One of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, Poe is also widely considered as being the inventor of the detective fiction genre. Evidence of the writer’s enduring popularity is the fact that an original copy of Poe’s Tamerlane and Other Poems sold at Christie’s in New York for $662,500, a record price for a work of American literature.

The bizarre events surrounding Poe’s death were as mysterious as the nature of his writing. On October 3rd 1849 Mr. Joseph Walker found Poe wandering the streets of Baltimore in a delirious state. The writer was taken to hospital, but was unable to give an accurate account of what had occurred before his demise four days later.

There has been much speculation surrounding Poe’s sudden deterioration and death. Due to the fact that he was found wearing someone else’s clothes it has been argued that he was the victim of cooping, a practice in which citizens were attacked, absconded, plied with alcohol and forced to vote for a political candidate. His sudden deterioration and demise has also been attributed to alcoholism, TB, epilepsy, diabetes and even rabies.

Dan Andersson

(April 6th 1888 – September 16th 1920)

Notable works: The Charcoal-Burner’s Tales, The Charcoal-Burner’s Songs, Three Homeless Ones

Dan Andersson was a Swedish author, poet and composer, who became a cult figure in his native Sweden posthumously. Regarded as one of Sweden’s greatest ever poets, his themes of naturalist mysticism and searching for God continue to resonate with his readers to this day.

Andersson’s memory has been commemorated with two stamps in his honour, a museum in his hometown of Ludrika, in addition to a Dan Andersson week, celebrated in the first week of every August. There is also a bust of the iconic poet in the country’s capital, Gothenburg.

The thirty-two year old Andersson met his premature demise when he went to Stockholm in September 1920 to try and secure a job at the newspaper Social-Demokraten. On arrival at the hotel he was due to stay in, the Hotel Hellman, the receptionist failed to inform him that his room had just been treated with hydrogen cyanide, in an effort to eradicate an infestation of bed bugs. At three pm on September 16th 1920 Andersson was found dead in his room.

Click here to read Part IV

Bizarre Author Deaths III

Dec 06 2013

This, the third instalment of my latest series about authors, is dedicated to two more bizarre author deaths. I chose this rather macabre subject matter, in part, because death is one of the themes in my second novel, Necropolis, a humorous work of dark fiction, due for release early next year (date to be confirmed shortly).

Dante Alighieri

(May/June c. 1265 – September 9th 1321)

Notable works: The Divine Comedy, Convivio, The Vita Nuova.

Florence born Dante’s defining work, The Divine Comedy, is widely regarded to this day, as the greatest piece of literature ever composed in Italian. The description of Dante’s fictional journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso), was to prove an important milestone in the development of Italian as an established literary language.

Italy’s sommo poeta (supreme poet) is remembered not only for his remarkable achievements, but also for the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death. Dante died of malaria in Ravenna in 1321, which was not unusual in itself during this era. However posthumous events took a bizarre turn when Florence, the city of Dante’s birth, demanded the return of their famous son.

Church officials in Ravenna secretly hid Dante’s body in a wall to prevent it from being stolen and returned to Florence. It lay forgotten until being unearthed during church renovations in 1863, when it was discovered that parts of the body had been taken at the time of the burial. In 1878 a repentant former town clerk, Pasquale Miccoli, returned a box of bones he had stolen.

Julien Offray de la Mettrie

(November 23rd 1709 – November 11th 1751)

Notable works: Man a Machine, The Natural History of the Soul.

French philosopher and physician, de la Mettrie, was one of the first materialists of the Enlightenment era. He was widely viewed as a scandalous figure during his lifetime and beyond, due to the highly controversial nature of his writings. Considering himself a mechanist materialistic, de la Mettrie held a number of beliefs, which were in stark contrast to church teachings, including his assertion that the body causes mental processes. Though many of his theories have since been disproved by science, the defiant writer is today regarded as having influenced psychology, particularly behaviourism.

Regarded as a rampant hedonist, de la Mettrie was to meet his demise as a direct result of his excess. Invited to a banquet, hosted by the French ambassador to Prussia, de la Mettrie, either as an attempt to show off his powers of gluttony, or his strong constitution, devoured an enormous quantity of pâté de fait aux truffes (pâte made from truffles). The resulting gastric illness culminated in a slow and painful death for the controversial writer.

Click here to read Bizarre Author Deaths II

Bizarre Author Deaths II

Nov 22 2013

Following on from last week, here is the second instalment of my series dedicated to bizarre author deaths.

Aeschylus

(525/524 BC – 456/455 BC)

Notable works: The Persians, Prometheus Bound, The Supplicants.

Often described as the father of tragedy, Aeschylus, along with Sophocles and Euripides, are the only Greek tragedians, whose plays are still performed and read today. Aeschylus wrote an estimated seventy to ninety plays, only seven of which have survived.

The tragedian’s innovations included most likely being the first dramatist to present his plays as a trilogy. His play, The Oresteia, is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. Another of his influential works, The Persians, is unique amongst Greek tragedies, as the only example to describe what was at the time a recent historical event. The play has proved to be an important source of information for historians studying the period in which it was written.

The playwright is also remembered for the purported bizarre nature of his demise. Aeschylus met his end when an eagle looking for a hard object to break open the shell of the turtle it was carrying, mistook Aeschylus’s bald head for a rock. The eagle dropped the turtle, killing the great tragedian instantly.

Mark Twain

(November 30th 1835 – April 21st 1910)

Notable works: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain is regarded as the father of American literature. Acclaimed for his satire and wit, Twain’s quotes on politics and human nature continue to be staples amongst speechmakers. The author’s iconic works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, often referred to as ‘The Great American Novel’, remain to this day required reading in American schools.

The influential author was born in November 1835, shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet. Twain was convinced that he would meet his end when the comet next returned to earth. He once famously said,

‘I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming next year, and I expect to go out with it.’

On April 21^st 1910, nearly seventy four and a half years after the comet’s last visit, the iconic writer’s prophetic declaration came true, when he died of a heart-attack, merely one day after the comet’s closest proximity to earth.

Bizarre Author Deaths I

Nov 15 2013

This, the first instalment of my latest series about authors, is dedicated to two bizarre author deaths. I chose this rather macabre subject matter as death is one of the themes in my second novel, Necropolis, a humorous work of dark fiction, due for release early next year (date to be confirmed soon).

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Notable works: To The Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando: A Biography, A Room of One’s Own.

Novelist, essayist, publisher and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and an important member of the prominent Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Regarded today as a foremost modernist and one of the major English language lyrical novelists, Virginia Woolf was an experimental writer, who achieved considerable popular and critical success during her lifetime. Her notable works include the experimental parodic biography, Orlando: A Biography, in which the hero’s life spans three centuries and both genders.

Woolf’s existence was not without its tribulations however. The talented writer suffered from depression throughout her life, several episodes in her younger years being so severe that she was sent to a mental institution. It was the onset of World War II and the destruction of Woolf’s London home in The Blitz, alongside the poor reception of her biography of late friend Roger Fry that were to send matters spiralling out of control.

Shortly after finishing the manuscript of her last novel, Between the Acts (posthumously published), Woolf entered a deep depression. On the 28th March 1941 the author put on her overcoat, filled the pockets with stones and walked out into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. After her body was finally discovered on the 18th April, Woolf’s husband, political theorist and author Leonard Woolf, had her cremated remains buried under an elm tree in the garden of their home in Rodmell.

Tennessee Williams

(March 26th 1911 – February 25th 1983)

Notable works: The Glass Menagerie, A Street Car Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

American playwright Tennessee Williams found fame with his play The Glass Menagerie (1944), a big hit on Broadway in New York. More success followed and by 1959 Williams had two Pulitzer Prizes, three New York Drama Critics Awards, three Donaldson Awards and a Tony Award to his name.

However the glory was not to last and the 1960s’ and 70s’ saw the talented playwright facing professional failures and personal problems. These may in part have been due to his increasing alcohol and drug consumption, as well as the death of former partner Frank Merlo in 1963. Beloved sister Rose being diagnosed with schizophrenia and his own dysfunctional upbringing, Williams’s father was a heavy drinker with a violent temper and his mother overbearing, could also have been factors in the playwright’s descent into depression, drugs and commitments to mental health facilities.

On the morning of February 26th 1983, Williams was found dead in his suite at the Elysee Hotel in New York. The medical examiner’s report indicated that the cause of death was Williams having choked to death on a cap from a bottle of eye drops. It was noted that alcohol and drugs might have contributed to his demise, as they may have suppressed the gag reflex. The bizarre nature of the playwright’s death was to be the subject of much scrutiny over the forthcoming years. A forensic detective who reviewed the file stated that it was an overdose that killed Williams, whilst friend Scott Kenan claimed someone in the coroner’s office invented the bottle cap scenario.

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7 Bizarre Author Deaths

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Bizarre Author Deaths I

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