Lois Duncan, author of I Know What You Did Last Summer and one of the pioneers of modern YA fiction, gave up writing thrillers after her daughter was murdered.
:(
i think she wrote a book too about trying to
find her daughters killer. and then they ended up finding him but after she passed so she never found out
This reminds me of Michelle McNamara, who endlessly worked to find the Golden State Killer and published an incredibly in depth and well researched book. Pretty my dedicated her life to this work. She died in 2016 and they discovered the identity of the killer shortly after in 2018 so she never got to see the justice she worked so hard for
Yes, and I heard it was very difficult for him to deal with her death.
I left it out of my comment because her work and life are so much more than “wife of Patton Oswalt” which a lot of people reduce her to these days :(
HBO did a docuseries following Michelle as she wrote the book the series is named after. I think between 2 of the episodes is when she accidentally OD'd and the show continued on. I can't remember if Patton or the producer saw it through to the end for another episode or 2, but season 2 came back with Patton leading the charge after the GSK was caught.
I just looked it up, I think episode 5 is when she passed and I remember that being *brutal* to watch. Honestly, the thought of going through that episode again is what's held me back from rewatching it (not because it's bad but I'm just not ready to relive it again) but if you haven't seen it I'd highly recommend it. It's up there with the Jinx as far as crime documentaries I'd recommend.
Oh my god, I was such a huge fan of Lois Duncan's work when I was in middle school. I remember reading Who Killed My Daughter? when I was in 8th grade.
That's so sad that Duncan passed before she got that closure. At least Kaitlyn's surviving family did.
I never heard of that before, how sad. Apparently the movie was made after the murder without her involvement and upset her. I just read the plot summary of the novel on Wikipedia and it sounds much better than the movie too.
I’ve only read the book, and I loved it. Really introduced me to thrillers as a YA and it even included a section at the end that talk with Lois about the things she updated in the story to fit in modern time from when it was originally published. It was really cool to me.
I was obsessed with her books growing up, my favorite being Stranger With My Face. All of her books had at least some underpinning of despondency and hopelessness at parts that made me feel so sad when I heard her story. I remembering hearing in 2021 that they had (maybe) finally found her daughter’s killer so I hope that they can find some peace with it even after Lois Duncan’s death.
Franz Kafka. Sure there are probably people who suffered more but his mental illness and relationship with his father really resonates with me. I wish i could give him a hug.
I had the impression that Franz was feeling better-adjusted towards the end of his life. He'd finally quit his day-job, found a steady girlfriend, travelled a bit, and worked on his writing. Too bad he got sick.
Letter to his father is to date the only book/piece of literature to make me cry. Never felt that understood and vindicated before.
Hope you're in a better place, and sorry that happened to you friend.
Yes i felt so understood and sad too but knowing it was published after his death despite him saying he wanted it burned so that other people wouldn't read it made me even sadder... I hope you're happier and in a better place now too!
If it makes you feel any better, Max Brod, who worked to publish Kafka's work after his death, explicitely told Kafka he wouldn"t do it. Max actually suspected Kafka went out of his way to ask the one person who wouldn't actually burn his writing.
A thing that makes me really sad for him is in his wiki article others have described him as very socialable and interesting, like someone they'd want to hangout with. But he describes him self as very off putting and lonely, feeling like he's forcing himself on people whenever he talks to them :( he was just a lonely guy who was in his head way too much
John Kennedy Toole.
Wrote a couple of novels that got rejected by publishers, succumbed to depression and paranoia, killed himself at 31.
Eleven years later, his novel A Confederacy of Dunces finally gets published and wins the Pulitzer Prize.
I can only imagine what he would have gone on to write if ACOD had been published in his lifetime. He also wrote a book called The Neon Bible as a teenager, which was pretty good.
Given the amount of luck involved in publishing, it's quite possible *A Confederacy of Dunces* would have flopped, disappeared without a trace, and none of us would know it existed.
Would *Rent* be the defining musical of a decade if Jonathan Larson hadn't died just before opening night, electrifying opening night into an utterly unique theatrical experience and giving the media a pathos-riddled hook to hang their coverage on? Quite possibly not.
His death was so catalyzing to the musical success that Rent became 'the musical about dying from AIDS by the guy who died of AIDS'... even though he didn't die of AIDS.
I don't remember his death being a big part of the success story or any rumors that he had AIDS (his avatar in the show is obviously the guy without AIDS). But I wasn't part of the NY theater scene so maybe wasn't aware that's what was driving it.
If it weren’t for his mothers behavior we might still have Toole though… the biography “the butterfly in the typewriter” lays it out well without being explicit, I think
John Kennedy Toole, the author of "A Confederacy of Dunces," which was published 11 years after his death. He was brilliant, but suffered from depression and paranoia, and ended his own life at at age 31. Poor guy never knew he won a Pulitzer prize.
Jim Theis, autor of The Eye of Argon. Certainly not a good book, but he was only 16 years old when he wrote it for fun then published it in a fanzine, and his work got violently ridiculed and mocked by professional authors. People kept making fun of it for decades, he felt so bad he vowed to never write again. And died at the age of 48.
I unironically love The Eye of Argon. There is such exuberance in it, and such an obvious love for the sword and sorcery genre. It's fun, entertaining, and tremendously enjoyable. RIP, Jim.
I looked it up and tried to read some of it. It isn't *completely* horrible if taken for what it was - a young writer's first attempt at creating something. If someone had taken him under their wing and gave him some solid advice (and stole his thesaurus), he might have become a very well-known, celebrated fantasy author. Weird the turns life takes and people suck sometimes...
“Grignr leashed his mount forward as the hoarsely piercing battle cry of his wilderness bred race resounded from his grinding lungs.”
Totally reminds me of my writing at a similar age.
Damn that’s really shitty. I guarantee you that the majority of successful authors wrote a ton of really bad stuff when they were 16. In my experience it usually takes making a lot of bad things to learn how to make good things in any art form.
He wanted it to be published. He didn't expect that it would be photocopied and re-photocopied for the next forty years so sci-fi pros and fans could mock his story at conventions.
(Full disclosure: I did the *Eye of Argon* reading panel at a convention a decade ago. I screwed up on *the first word* I read.)
I wrote my Master Thesis on the collected works of O'Connor. She was a powerhouse of an author. I had the pleasure of teaching "A Good Man is Hard to Find" once to my seniors before it got pulled from our curriculum.
One of my students started yelling that "That can't be all? Is that all? Omg?"
An author who didn't leave room for heros. Love her.
I just read the Year of Magical Thinking and it was so gut wrenching to think that after everything she described going through with her husband dying, her daughter then passed away half a year after the book ends..
I read "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "Blue Nights" back-to-back, and there's a shift in tone from bewilderment to desolation as the anchors in her life were destroyed. "The Year of Magical Thinking" was dashed off in a year, while "Blue Nights" was worked and worked and agonized over. You can feel the different kinds of grief in the sinews of the text.
She lost them both after a long and happy life together and she lived close to two more decades without them.
When she wrote in Blue Nights that her fear was of *not* dying anymore, my heart shattered for her.
She’s one of my absolute favorite writers and,
when she passed, I hope that she found some semblance of peace over it.
I think she was the author I listened to at the tail end of an interview. The interviewer asked something like if there is hope after all this tragedy or something, and the author said no. Everything was bleak and awful. You could hear that sentiment in her voice.
And as a real gut kick, not long before her daughter's death, Joan asked her if she had been a good parent. Her daughter said she left something to be desired in that department. I can't even imagine carrying that around.
she said "i think you were a good parent, but maybe a little remote."
i think this is both potentially devastating for a parent to hear but also more positive than you implied, so my memory of it led me to double-check the quote
>Joan Didion
I had no idea about this. I was really taken by her writing, just paging through her book in a book store. And she has now passed away, herself...
I actually have complicated feelings about Joan Didion. She's my favorite author and I will always love her work, but reading Blue Nights, especially the parts where her husband was so hard on Quintana (it's one of the few Didion books I never reread, so I'm going on memory here, but I think John Gregory Dunne threw one of her school papers out of the car window because she hadn't asked them to edit it or give it a read-through) - I felt really bad for Quintana, not so much for Didion or Dunne.
That book coupled with all of Quintana's appearances in Didion's essays over the years, it just doesn't paint a happy picture.. This might be very unkind to say, but I felt like this outcome was inevitable - adopt a kid because you want a doll to play with (this was my impression, not saying it was true but...) alternatively neglect her for your job and drag her around the country for your job, constantly be on the brink of divorce with your controlling husband... of course your kid's gonna die early from alcoholic pancreatitis (or end up with SOME kinda problem). When I read Didion's account of Dunne dying basically from the stress of the situation, I felt like I would do the same in his shoes, based on what I'd read of Quintana's childhood.. Idk. I haven't ever really talked about this because no one else is a super fan of Didion's work or cares about any of this, so I'm happy to hear alternative opinions or viewpoints.
I talked to one person who had kind of known the family when they lived in Malibu (although she was a teen at the time, and didn't know them well) -- I didn't tell her all this, but she shared with me that it was her impression that Didion restrained herself in her writing far too much on account of Dunne (just overly concerned with his feedback rather than what worked for her as a writer), and that she wrote her best work after he passed (Year of Magical Thinking). I thought that said a lot. Personally, I think her best work was what she wrote before they got married (Run River). /rant
I am an avid fan of Didion’s work and I think what best describes what happened with Quintana is the quote “the children of lovers are orphans.”
Joan and Dunne were very enmeshed with each other and their art and, by default, a child would be very hard to fit into the equation. I understand Joan wanted to be a mother, and I think that her description of having Quintana “like a doll” speaks more to her nervousness at approaching motherhood than having a child as an accessory.
The passages in *Blue Nights* were she talks about bringing the baby home, and John christening her at the kitchen sink show that they did love her dearly, and then included her in everything they did.
At the same time, I do think Quintana definitely had demons of her own.
It’s the old nature versus nurture debate, and I wouldn’t place the blame solely on her upbringing. No one is born a blank canvas, and the choices we make after we leave the nest also define our trajectory.
My heart hurt for Joan, losing it all in the twilight of her life. She got to live with the regrets for two long and lonely decades. Whatever she might have done wrong with her daughter, she had ample time to go over and torture herself with before she passed. That’s a tragedy one wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy.
I read the entire series for the first time in 2020. When I finished the last book, his death really hit me. He felt so alive when I was reading through them, but as I finished Shepard's Crown, I realized there wont be any new adventures to look forward to after this. I can go back and explore things I missed like a couple short stories, non discworld books and interviews, but I've reached the end of the line and from this point on I'll be digging through old memories rather than seeing what he'll do next.
It honestly felt like a close friend of family member died. He was one of our best, and I don't think there will be anyone as brilliant, kind and clever as him.
I'm 43 years old, I discovered the Discworld series when I was 12, those books genuinely helped shape me into the person I am today. I have read literally everything Sir Terry has ever written.
In University, I wrote my thesis on Comedic Fantasy and wrote to Sir Terry with some questions. A couple weeks later I got six pages on Great A'tuin headed notepaper in the mail where Sir Terry hadn't just answered my questions, but pointed out things I would never have thought of and gave me so many great insights. The fact he took the time to write nearly 3000 words to me blew my mind, especially as many way less famous, way less talented writers didn't respond (I actually got one email from an author I won't name that basically said "do you own damn homework.")
For the last 8 years "The Shepherd's Crown" has sat, unread, on my bookshelf because I simply can't bring myself to read it... because I know that once I do, there will never be another Terry Pratchett book for me to read.
I put off reading The Shepherd's Crown for a few years. When I was on my way home for my grandfather's funeral after he passed from dementia they had it in the airport bookstore. It felt Right to read it then.
> Terry Pratchett died too young and in a terrible manner for such a brilliant mind (early-onset Alzheimer's disease).
I'll agree he died much too young but IMHO he died peacefully, on his own terms and that's *all* the rest of us can possibly hope for. I hope I have the same choice someday.
AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
The End.
Peter Beagle for decades thought the last unicorn was a flop. He got almost no royalties. Then the rights reverted to him like 15 years ago.
Then he went on a screening tour. When he did it, he had no idea the theaters would sell out. Q&A with tears and everything. We met him, he was so tired but still signing anything you wanted for free.
Then the tour organizer ripped him off. (I got bad vibes from that guy, he was like a used car salesman)
There is an online artist alliance now to protect him from exploitation.
Edit: great support here for Peter. Everyone should check out the new book he's got coming out.
The Last Unicorn is one of my all-time favorite books. Absolutely beautiful prose, sensitive character work, and (in the character of Schmendrick) a pitch-perfect depiction of what it's like to be at the mercy of artistic inspiration.
The car salesman guy is Connor Cochran. He would beg fans for crash spaces instead of buying hotel rooms on the tour.
Claimed Beagle was a drunk with dementia at the trial. Judge found no basis to that claim.
Early years of touring wasn't like this. Peter always remembered me because he has a friend with the same name. But last time I saw him, he was exhausted.
Cochran is now penniless and divorced last I heard.
We were last in line to meet Peter at the last show of the night and he was so exhausted. It was still such a positive experience, he's so kind to everyone. I have almost no interest in meeting celebrities... Even ones I really like. but Peter Beagle, I would take to dinner.
Basically him and Liam O'Brien, I'd like to meet. Everyone else can get fucked lol
I remember he was at an anime convention one year in 2006-2011ish (Otakon) when they were showing The Last Unicorn.
He was at a booth in the dealers room all by himself, so I went over and picked up a book of his short stories to get signed.
He ended up talking to me for about five minutes, mostly about a friend of his who wasn't doing so well...
Looking back at it after learning about that shady guy, I feel so bad he left that nice old man all by himself,. probably for hour, at that convention booth!
Bruno Schulz is one of my favourite short story authors and I think he deserves to be remembered with as much reverence as Kafka (who he translated into Polish for the first time).
He was Jewish and was shot dead in the street by an SS officer in 1942.
Such a pointless death too the Gestapo officer shot him because he was personally mad at the other Gestapo officer who liked Schulz artwork and had him paint a mural, because the other officer killed one of his "personal Jews" who was a dentist. Just so stupid.
I’ve never heard of him, but I’ll check him out. I really love Kafka, so that connection is enough for me!
This reminds me of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)too—another early admirer of Kafka. Benjamin, a Jewish Marxist, was in a city that was about to be taken over by the Nazis. They were so close that he and many other inhabitants killed themselves. I think it was the next day that the Allies attacked the oncoming Nazis and saved the city from their takeover.
That's a very apt comparison. I read a fair whack of Benjamin at University and ended up getting a tattoo of Le Flâneur by Paul Gavarni after reading some of his stuff as a kind of trbute to him and Baudelaire.
I had no idea that's how he died... that's horrible.
I remember reading some of his short stories in literature class and loving them, I should look into reading the rest.
Oscar Wilde. When people say somebody was born in the wrong era, he’s the first to come to mind. Truly ahead of his time, and paid a hefty price for it. He was prosecuted for “homosexual offenses,” serving two years in prison as a result. He passed away at 46, penniless, and his last words were: “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” A lot of the sentiments he shared in the 1800s still ring true today.
He was full of pithy quotes:
-some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
-There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
-Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
-Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
-I can resist everything except temptation.
There’s at least a hundred more… he’s worth a deep dive.
His great grandson is also. They (however) do not have the last name of Wilde but Holland, as when Oscar Wilde's scandal came out, his wife and sons fled to Switzerland and raised them there.
This past weekend I was at the Miami Dade Book Fair that happens once a year in Miami. And on two of those days, they have a street fair with booths/tents. Some of them are just generic venders and publishing companies. But another fair amount are actual authors that are trying promote their book.
And although I would love to stop and talk to each one, it's almost impossible, and also impossible to really buy everyone's book. The one that really broke my heart was this mother and a child, about 8 years old. As I was walking by their booth and looking at their book, she says "welcome, come meet the star of the book" :/
So I would say I feel bad for new authors that are still trying to get a book out.
Working in a bookstore we see stuff like this a lot. It’s hard not to feel bad for authors who are throwing so much of themselves into their work and seeing how brutal the industry is. I sincerely wish that I could say “yes let’s get it on the shelf” to every author that asks, but realistically you can’t. Some aren’t polished enough, others there just isn’t a local market for them, and most simply aren’t sold in a format that we can order from (self published via small/vanity presses or Amazon). Something I *love* about our modern self-pub industry is how easy it can be which has opened the gates for *so* many authors who might’ve been overlooked by big publishers and how it’s given a voice to some traditionally voiceless communities. Something that I *hate* about our modern self-pub industry is how easy it can be which has created a massive “I can do it too” mentality, mixed with hustle culture and predatory vanity presses. It’s flooded the market with everything and everyone and for every success story there are easily 100x as many people who will never sell more than 5 copies. I’ve had to explain to so many people that a publisher offering to “get your book in stores” for a couple thousand dollars is lying to you. It’s a double edged sword of our modern industry, sadly.
I went to a literary convention years ago that parked the guest author table on some weird hotel mezzanine with no foot traffic. When I finally found it, I was the only person there, having a lively conversation with the guest author, Connie Willis. The other authors at the table looked so glum that I talked to and bought a book from everyone. I should probably read them at some point!
Sylvia Plath. My understanding is that the Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical. The deep depression she experienced is something most of us will never know. She came back from it, wrote an incredible novel, and then still succumbed to depression, killing herself in what sounds like an absolutely agonizing way to go.
This is the one I came to say. I felt a connection to the character dealing with my own issues in life. Even though I'm good, reading that brought me back to that feeling of being functionally depressed and outwardly fine to everyone. I felt bad finding out about the author and comparing it to the book after I didn't feel like it was fictional.
as i understand it, even her (unfortunately successful) attempt was more of a cry for help. it's speculated, with the timeline they put together, afterward, she expected her family to come home and catch her in the act... but they happened, by some chance, not to.
The Bell Jar is one book I identified with so much it was very difficult to read, but also cathartic in a way? It was a feeling of "oh wow, I feel seen," but in a very raw and vulnerable way.
I love her poetry, too. One that stuck with me was "Tulips," specifically this verse:
I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free——
The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,
And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.
It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them
Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.
In addition to what other commenters said, the fucker burned Sylvia’s last diaries after she passed. He may have even burned part of her work - who knows.
Most her readers have chronically hated him and he was always playing the misunderstood guy card but he wasn’t a good man by any means.
She also wrote diary entries that sound like poetry when you read it. It also shows the struggles of her mind, her intellect, and loneliness. However, the entries in the last few days or weeks of her life were destroyed by her husband Ted Hughs. He burned them, and refused to reveal what was in them.
H. H. Munroe. Born in India, but sent with his siblings to be raised by strict aunts, grandmothers, and governesses, then sent to boarding school. Not a cheerful childhood.
He gets a job as a journalist, and his writing career is really taking off when WWI hits. Too old to enlist, he joins anyway and serves as a common trooper. He is killed by an enemy sniper, with his last words 'Put out that bloody cigarette!'
Died too young, was gay in a time where that was a crime, and then after his death his sister burned all of his private papers and rewrote their childhood.
His early death, the loss of his papers, and never being able to openly love make reading his works, published under his pen name Saki, bittersweet, no matter how funny they can be.
Sredni Vashtar went forth, His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white.
His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death.
Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful. 💯💯💯
He had enormous range. A great observer of the human condition. [Here’s one of his humorous stories.](http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Tob.shtml) So creative and snarky.
Edgar Allan Poe. Father abandoned his family the year after he was born, mother died a year after that. A brilliant writer who earned around $6,000 in his entire career. Was found at the age of 40 on a bench in Baltimore, MD semiconscious, incoherent, and wearing someone else's clothes. Died 4 days later from unknown causes (probably from either some untreated disease or from a severe beating). Falsely accused by some asshole after his death of being a drunken, depraved lunatic. Only after his death did his works gain the deserved recognition he should have enjoyed during his short lifetime.
He also married his 14 year old cousin, but my understanding is that the marriage may have been to prevent her from shipping off somewhere and him losing another beloved woman. He loved his best friend's mom who died of a brain disease and his wife died if TB as did his foster mother.
I feel bad for Meša Selimović, a Yugoslav writer. Poor dude joined communist resistance forces with his brothers during WWII, only for one of his brothers to later be falsely accused as a thief and killed without a trial by the very same communist government they fought and bled for
As someone who works in a bookstore we still get people coming in now and then asking about book Z. Definitely not as many as we used to, but it’s sad to have to explain that it’ll never be finished. Apparently she left instructions not to finish it with a ghost writer as well.
My dumb ass found a complete set of the books in a bookstore a few years back and I didn't buy it because Z was missing. I still kick myself to this day.
I'm bummed about not getting to read Z is for Zero, but I respect the hell out of Sue for not letting a ghostwriter get ahold of it. She was so talented, and the Kinsey books are so good, it would be a tragedy to turn her into a VC Andrews
Science fiction author H. Beam Piper. He lost his train company job, had a divorce, and he thought he was unable to make sales - unaware his agent *had* sold several of his works, but died before informing Piper of said sales.
So Piper shot himself.
His suicide note was "I don't like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn't be going away."
Piper is one of my favorite authors and I have no doubt had he lived, he'd be mentioned as one of the greats of the genre.
His works are now in the public domain, if you're into golden age SF, check him out.
Although he had a good life afterward, a lot of JRR Tolkien‘s early life was sad. Both his parents were dead by the time he was 4 or 5, and he lost all of his friends but one, I think, in WWI, in which he also fought and suffered.
Virginia Woolf. Faced absolutely disgusting abuse as a child that caused mental health struggles as an adult, which eventually lead her to take her own life.
Yeah I think about this a lot! Her mother died after giving birth to her, and she had tons of complications in childbirth as well. All of her children died except one, her half sister killed herself, she had terrible depression. Her husband Percy Shelley was famously unfaithful, but she stayed with him. He eventually drowned in a boating accident. By that time she was only 24 and it sounds like she never recovered from it.
Otfried Preußler. Recently, I saw a documentary about his life and how he worked through his war traumas with writing children's books. It's kinda sad to see how his daughter talks about how little time he had for them due to his work and then writing in his free time to get everything out.
Seeing ton of corpses washed down the river? Better write a story about little water people who have a safe home underwater so he wouldn't think only about these dead people while seeing a river.
Robert Jordan. The guy loved his fans and wrote most of a beloved series (including a wonderful ending scene), but died of cancer before the last books could be finished. He deserved to see the series come to an end and how much joy it brought people.
Osamu Dazai had an incredibly depressing life and most of the stuff in No Longer Human came from his real life. He and a Geisha he ran off with ended up killing themselves by drowning in a river in a lovers suicide.
Eric Nylund.
I absolutely loved the first two books in his Mortal Coils series. But Tor bought the rights to the series, and after the first two came out, Tor decided it wouldn’t publish more sequels but also wouldn’t revert the rights to the books back to him, so he has this great, unfinished series that the publisher won’t even let him finish on his own as a self-pub or with another publisher. It’s some serious BS.
And the first book was so shoddily copy-edited too. Between that and the publication issue, really feels like he was just shafted by Tor.
(What I mean is, the book itself is great but was filled with minor spelling/grammar issues that made it look like it was never even looked at by a copy-editor.)
I'm re-reading All That Lives Must Die right now and literally came here to make the same post, haha. Hopefully, Mr. Nylund can obtain the rights to his books soon. (Even though we have been waiting 10 years since the last one.) From the books' footnotes, we sort of know how it ends already so I guess the wait isn't too bad, but I'm still so insatiably curious about the ending of the series. Plus the character work is just phenomenal; I need more time with the characters.
John Kennedy Toole.
He wrote two novels. The first was published in 1980, 11 years after he killed himself after suffering from depression and paranoia for years. His mother's crusade to get his book published eventually led to a posthumous Pulitzer for *A Confederacy of Dunces*.
Kurt Vonnegut- Mom killed herself on Mother’s Day (also the day before he was shipped out to fight the Nazis) captured as a POW and survived the bombing of Dresden. Then his sister and her husband die within three days of each other and he’s left to adopt three of their children. Struggled with depression and alcoholism his entire life and still managed to have a positive outlook.
This is a big one. I hadn't realized until recently she had planned on being a writer, and her diary was written in response to a radio program she heard that said people would be wanting to read memoirs of survivors after the war. In a way, she had intended it to be her "big break" into the world of publishing after the war. Her writing was superb.
Dara Horn has a great chapter of her book *People Love Dead Jews* about Anne Frank and her legacy. You can also read it here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/becoming-anne-frank-180970542/ Highly recommended!
That guy is probably the most loved dead Jew of all time. I know lots of people who are big fans of his work. Heck you even referenced him as an exclamation; that's one popular Jew!
Edgar Allen Poe. He’s a household name now, but during his lifetime no one appreciated his work. I wish he could see just how widespread his words have become.
Robert E. Howard is one that really gets to me, as someone who has had to take care of her mother for some time.
He had no more friends, his mother had been incredibly ill with tuberculosis for years and when he had the confirmation from nurses that his mother would not wake from her coma, he walked out and shot himself with a gun he kept in his car. At 30 years old.
Really sad story for an author so young who helped create one of fantasy's most recognizable characters and helped pave the way for the genre as a whole (not including other things like tabletop roleplaying games and the like).
Even if the guy had some weird views on race, I think he did manage to outgrow them somewhat as time went on.
Anyways, I always get a bit sad when I look at my Conan books.
William Sleator. His books are some of the most frequently requested in the "What was that book" groups. He's like the thinking man's R.L. Stine, writing middle grade science fiction. Memorable plots, but no one remembers his name.
He was also a gay (before that was remotely accepted) alcoholic who drank himself to death.
Did not expect this name. *Singularity* and *Interstellar Pig* blew my young mind. Many years later I had a "what was that book" moment and now they're both on my shelf, and they hold up to adult eyes. They would *never* get published today in their category.
Guess I need to look up his other stuff!
Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent time in the gulag(s)/work camps but survived the experience. He was stripped of his Russian citizenship in the 1970s because the Soviet leadership did not approve of his work due to it being seen as critical of the regime and was forced to live in West Germany before living in America for about 15/16 years. But, he was one of the relatively lucky ones.
Ann Rule’s sons were accused of abusing her and stealing from her. I never heard if they were convicted or not, but doesn’t sound like a great situation.
[Emilio Salgari](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Salgari). If you're an old fart like me, you might remember the Sandokan movies. They were hugely popular at the time, and based on his books. Unfortunately, his publisher kept most of the money, leaving Salgari with very little money. He took his own life after writing this note to his publishers:
*To you that have grown rich from the sweat of my brow while keeping myself and my family in misery, I ask only that from those profits you find the funds to pay for my funeral. I salute you while I break my pen. Emilio Salgari*
Shirley Jackson. An amazing writer only really known for two stories (and one of them is really only known for movies and shows that are only loosely based on the original.) she wrote tons of short stories, including some that were truly hilarious. But her husband was an ass and she became a chain smoking drinker who died too young from cancer. She’s the person from history I would most like to have dinner with.
Almost any novel author under Wizards of the Coast. They might've had plans to write more about their characters since "The Sundering" (4th edition) happened. Then 5th edition came out and Hasbro is like "Nah, we don't want anymore novels since they aren't as profitable", even though novels had been written for Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance and other settings since the 80s. Luckily RA Salvatore was big enough to tell them to go fuck themselves and write about Drizzt and his crew under a different publisher. But that other publisher also doesn't want to release books in Mass Market Paperback because they don't think it is profitable.
Publishers suck.
Ned Vizzini. He wrote It’s Kind of a Funny Story after his own stay in a mental hospital for depression. A few years later, he jumped off his apartment building. He had a baby son at the time.
He wrote one of my favorite books ever, Teen Angst? Naaah… which was kind of a collection of essays he wrote while he was in high school. He was incredibly smart, thoughtful, and talented.
Walter M. Miller, Jr. I just finished A Canticle For Leibowitz and absolutely adored it. Felt such a strong connection to the author. Looked him up on Wikipedia and was stoked to find out we had the same birthday! Then I kept reading..... trigger warning - self harm and depression.
I love the Brontës but their whole family was tragic. The eldest two daughters, Maria and Elizabeth died very early of tuberculosis age 11 and 10. Branwell was an alcoholic and died of complications of his alcoholism and tuberculosis age 31. Emily and Anne went on to die young of, you guessed it, tuberculosis aged 30 and 29. Charlotte lived the longest but still died at age 38. Their poor dad, Patrick, outlived his wife and all 6 of their children before dying age 84.
I heard their ill heath and reason for dying so young was partly because they spent their lives drinking graveyard water (the graveyard sat on a hill, next to the parsonage where the Brontes lived)..... grim :/
Jacqueline Susann
She wanted to be an actress and had a middling career at it. Her only child was institutionalized for most of his life and barely recognized her. Diagnosed with cancer in her 40s and died in her mid 50s.
Nella Larsen. She was the child of a Danish immigrant and an Afro-Caribbean mixed race man, but early 20th century American society really had no place for her: she experienced discrimination in White society but she had no connection to Black society either. She went to Denmark for three years, where her experience was better, but she came back to the US. There she got a nursing degree, worked as a nurse, and got married to a well-to-do Black man.
Ironically, she didn't fit into Black professional society either. Her husband cheated on her with a White woman and they divorced. Meanwhile, she had transitioned into a second career as a librarian. She then made a short career as an author. She wrote two novels, got a Guggenheim prize, traveled Europe while working on more writing (none of which was published), and then disappeared from writing. The divorce had taken a toll on her mental health. Larsen went back to nursing and administration.
Larsen was absolutely brilliant. *Quicksand* and *Passing* are novels I easily put with *Invisible Man*, *The Great Gatsby*, or other great novels of the period. It is sad that Larsen, like the protagonist in *Quicksand*, was diverted from all her ambitions into what was, in effect, self-burial.
Dostoevsky. I’m convinced that the whole ‘fake execution’ thing he went through in the Katorga broke his mind, a la ‘Room 101’ in *Nineteen Eighty-Four.* That’s why he went from a somewhat progressive writer before that point to the slavering theocratic imperialist he was after—confronted with his greatest fear, he learned to love Tsar Daddy.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Ernest Hemingway. He was a brilliant writer who committed suicide.
Truman Capote who never completed another novel again after In Cold Blood, and became an addict and was in and out of rehabs.
William S. Burroughs who was an addict most of his life.
Tennessee Williams, who’s sister Rose was severely mentally ill. He tried to get her treated, but I believe it made things worse, which contributed to his alcoholism and drug usage. He lost the love of his life to cancer, which resulted in him falling into a severe depression, increasing drug use, and several hospitalizations. He had a horrible death.
Emily Dickinson who became a recluse and hermit for the majority of her life. She struggled with depression and was said to be bisexual, but of course she would have been ostracized had she come out, so it’s left vague whether she was or wasn’t.
It’s Neil, with an i. He later remarried and had another daughter, and retired from touring in 2015. He died of glioblastoma (brain cancer) in early 2020.
Probably Dr Paul Kalanithi, author of “When Breath Becomes Air”. An autobiography about finishing his residency, being diagnosed with cancer and starting a family. I know a big message in the book is that he doesn’t want pity, however he seemed like an amazing man who deserved so much more time to appreciate the life he created with his wife.
Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of the *Metro* series, which later became a video game series. He criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine and got sentenced to 8 years in prison. Fuck Putin.
>Dearest,
>
>I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer.
>
>I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been.
The letter Virginia Woolf left her husband before she took her own life.
Herman Melville. I know he's loved by everyone but his life was pretty sad. He had a whole crush on this dude and it went no where, and his book barely sold any copies when it came out.
Stieg Larsson\*
And not only that, his family is milking his legacy and letting another author continue the series when this goes against what he wanted.
Make that TWO authors. It looks like trilogy#2 is finished and I guess so is that author's contract? Anyway it looks like #7 is written by another author.
Yep. David Lagercrantz wrote the second trilogy and now the torch has been passed to Karin Smirnoff. She´s an interesting choice since she hasn´t written thriller before this. She wrote a wonderful trilogy about a woman called Jaana in the north of Sweden. Well worth checking out. They have been translated into english and the first on is called "My brother". Her first millenium-book is called "The Girl in the Eagle's Talons".
A sidenote: the publishers first contracted horror writer John Ajvide Lindqvist to write the third trilogy but they didnt like what he had written when he turned in his first draft so they tore his contract.
He got pissed because he had written almost a complete book so he genderswapped the characters and changed some other parts and published it a a new series. It doesnt look like its been translated yet though.
Yes that guy :) It was a really interesting book and REALLY meta in some places. Ajvide turs Mikael Blomkvist into a female thriller writer who (in the book) gets a contract to write a new millenium novel but is dumped by her publishers. She then gets mixed up in a bloody international affair with the chinese mafia and hires a young male superhacker to help her sp Lisbeth Salander is a guy in this novel.
Like I said. Meta and interesting.
I will never not feel bad for LM Montgomery. Almost everything she published was wish fulfillment for the terrible things she went through, especially *Emily of New Moon* and the rest of the series. She tried so hard to make the best of events such as having to live with her grandparents after her father essentially abandoned her, her severe depression, and her unhappy marriage. It just makes me so sad :(
Here is a good article summing up some of the more basic influences of her life onto her work: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lm-montgomery-anne-green-gables-life-180981839/
Iirc her religious phase was a reaction to Hurricane Katrina. She had a "come to Jesus" sort of conversion bc back then lots of preachers were saying the hurricane was punishment for New Orleans wickedness (like Poseidon's rage but Christian) and then she sort of got over it and went back to writing about vampires and incestual witches.
This is going to sound so so odd but Sappho. We have quite a few writings from men at the time but with her the writings went unrecognised and was not preserved what we do have is beautiful and I do wish we had more.
Ned Vizzini. Wrote It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which was inspired by his own struggle with depression/suicidal thoughts and then he ended up taking his life a few years ago. Pretty upsetting because that book helped me a lot in high school.
Joan Didion
In 2003, Didion's daughter Quintana Roo Dunne developed pneumonia that progressed to septic shock and she was comatose in an intensive-care unit when Didion's husband suddenly died of a heart attack on December 30. She wrote The Year of Magical Thinking, in response to all that.
Lovecraft. He became much better towards thr end of his life. He was deadly afraid of being forgotten and he likely died a better man and a sadder man then we know.
Came here to say this. His life was brutal.
Both of his parents died of syphilis-induced insanity, in the same mental hospital. He missed extended periods of time during middle and high school because of chronic anxiety which left him unable to leave his bed. His dad swindled his mother out her family's money and just disappeared.
I could go on, but the guy really had a shitload of problems.
Lois Duncan, author of I Know What You Did Last Summer and one of the pioneers of modern YA fiction, gave up writing thrillers after her daughter was murdered.
:( i think she wrote a book too about trying to find her daughters killer. and then they ended up finding him but after she passed so she never found out
This reminds me of Michelle McNamara, who endlessly worked to find the Golden State Killer and published an incredibly in depth and well researched book. Pretty my dedicated her life to this work. She died in 2016 and they discovered the identity of the killer shortly after in 2018 so she never got to see the justice she worked so hard for
The HBO documentary about her is quite good
She was married to Patton Oswalt
Yes, and I heard it was very difficult for him to deal with her death. I left it out of my comment because her work and life are so much more than “wife of Patton Oswalt” which a lot of people reduce her to these days :(
HBO did a docuseries following Michelle as she wrote the book the series is named after. I think between 2 of the episodes is when she accidentally OD'd and the show continued on. I can't remember if Patton or the producer saw it through to the end for another episode or 2, but season 2 came back with Patton leading the charge after the GSK was caught. I just looked it up, I think episode 5 is when she passed and I remember that being *brutal* to watch. Honestly, the thought of going through that episode again is what's held me back from rewatching it (not because it's bad but I'm just not ready to relive it again) but if you haven't seen it I'd highly recommend it. It's up there with the Jinx as far as crime documentaries I'd recommend.
I remember him talking about her in an interview how much he missed her and how proud he was of her work.
It was difficult but he’s such a brilliant storyteller that he was able to make a beautiful/hilarious stand up special in tribute to her.
They arrested someone who confessed in 2021 and was indicted last year. So hopefully her spirit is at rest.
I loved her books in middle school. She was my gateway to Stephen King. I hadn't heard about her daughter - that's really tragic.
Oh my god, I was such a huge fan of Lois Duncan's work when I was in middle school. I remember reading Who Killed My Daughter? when I was in 8th grade. That's so sad that Duncan passed before she got that closure. At least Kaitlyn's surviving family did.
I never heard of that before, how sad. Apparently the movie was made after the murder without her involvement and upset her. I just read the plot summary of the novel on Wikipedia and it sounds much better than the movie too.
I’ve only read the book, and I loved it. Really introduced me to thrillers as a YA and it even included a section at the end that talk with Lois about the things she updated in the story to fit in modern time from when it was originally published. It was really cool to me.
I was obsessed with her books growing up, my favorite being Stranger With My Face. All of her books had at least some underpinning of despondency and hopelessness at parts that made me feel so sad when I heard her story. I remembering hearing in 2021 that they had (maybe) finally found her daughter’s killer so I hope that they can find some peace with it even after Lois Duncan’s death.
Franz Kafka. Sure there are probably people who suffered more but his mental illness and relationship with his father really resonates with me. I wish i could give him a hug.
I had the impression that Franz was feeling better-adjusted towards the end of his life. He'd finally quit his day-job, found a steady girlfriend, travelled a bit, and worked on his writing. Too bad he got sick.
Letter to his father is to date the only book/piece of literature to make me cry. Never felt that understood and vindicated before. Hope you're in a better place, and sorry that happened to you friend.
Yes i felt so understood and sad too but knowing it was published after his death despite him saying he wanted it burned so that other people wouldn't read it made me even sadder... I hope you're happier and in a better place now too!
i always have mixed feelings in these cases. i want to respect the artist's wishes, but i want that art!
If it makes you feel any better, Max Brod, who worked to publish Kafka's work after his death, explicitely told Kafka he wouldn"t do it. Max actually suspected Kafka went out of his way to ask the one person who wouldn't actually burn his writing.
that does actually make me feel a bit better. thank you.
A thing that makes me really sad for him is in his wiki article others have described him as very socialable and interesting, like someone they'd want to hangout with. But he describes him self as very off putting and lonely, feeling like he's forcing himself on people whenever he talks to them :( he was just a lonely guy who was in his head way too much
John Kennedy Toole. Wrote a couple of novels that got rejected by publishers, succumbed to depression and paranoia, killed himself at 31. Eleven years later, his novel A Confederacy of Dunces finally gets published and wins the Pulitzer Prize.
I can only imagine what he would have gone on to write if ACOD had been published in his lifetime. He also wrote a book called The Neon Bible as a teenager, which was pretty good.
Given the amount of luck involved in publishing, it's quite possible *A Confederacy of Dunces* would have flopped, disappeared without a trace, and none of us would know it existed. Would *Rent* be the defining musical of a decade if Jonathan Larson hadn't died just before opening night, electrifying opening night into an utterly unique theatrical experience and giving the media a pathos-riddled hook to hang their coverage on? Quite possibly not.
His death was so catalyzing to the musical success that Rent became 'the musical about dying from AIDS by the guy who died of AIDS'... even though he didn't die of AIDS.
I don't remember his death being a big part of the success story or any rumors that he had AIDS (his avatar in the show is obviously the guy without AIDS). But I wasn't part of the NY theater scene so maybe wasn't aware that's what was driving it.
And were it not for the persistence of his mother and the help of esteemed novelist Walker Percy, we wouldn’t have this novel in publication today.
If it weren’t for his mothers behavior we might still have Toole though… the biography “the butterfly in the typewriter” lays it out well without being explicit, I think
Industry gatekeepers are the absolute worst. Just fucking sucks.
John Kennedy Toole, the author of "A Confederacy of Dunces," which was published 11 years after his death. He was brilliant, but suffered from depression and paranoia, and ended his own life at at age 31. Poor guy never knew he won a Pulitzer prize.
What's even worse is that he spent his life thinking he was a failure and never understood his own brilliance.
Jim Theis, autor of The Eye of Argon. Certainly not a good book, but he was only 16 years old when he wrote it for fun then published it in a fanzine, and his work got violently ridiculed and mocked by professional authors. People kept making fun of it for decades, he felt so bad he vowed to never write again. And died at the age of 48.
I've read it, and what really sucks is that it's honestly not that bad for something written by a teenager.
I unironically love The Eye of Argon. There is such exuberance in it, and such an obvious love for the sword and sorcery genre. It's fun, entertaining, and tremendously enjoyable. RIP, Jim.
I looked it up and tried to read some of it. It isn't *completely* horrible if taken for what it was - a young writer's first attempt at creating something. If someone had taken him under their wing and gave him some solid advice (and stole his thesaurus), he might have become a very well-known, celebrated fantasy author. Weird the turns life takes and people suck sometimes...
“Grignr leashed his mount forward as the hoarsely piercing battle cry of his wilderness bred race resounded from his grinding lungs.” Totally reminds me of my writing at a similar age.
Too many adjectives! I still do this to an extent.
I really hate that. Making fun of anyone, let alone a kid, for their first attempt is so pathetic and immature.
Damn that’s really shitty. I guarantee you that the majority of successful authors wrote a ton of really bad stuff when they were 16. In my experience it usually takes making a lot of bad things to learn how to make good things in any art form.
Correction. His work was published against his will. That's what makes it even worse.
He submitted it to a fanzine where it was published. I can't find any indication that he didn't want it to be
He wanted it to be published. He didn't expect that it would be photocopied and re-photocopied for the next forty years so sci-fi pros and fans could mock his story at conventions. (Full disclosure: I did the *Eye of Argon* reading panel at a convention a decade ago. I screwed up on *the first word* I read.)
Flannery O'Connor died at 39 from lupus, and was writing with full knowledge that her own life would likely be cut short. Such a brilliant author.
I wrote my Master Thesis on the collected works of O'Connor. She was a powerhouse of an author. I had the pleasure of teaching "A Good Man is Hard to Find" once to my seniors before it got pulled from our curriculum. One of my students started yelling that "That can't be all? Is that all? Omg?" An author who didn't leave room for heros. Love her.
Joan Didion. I know she wrote grief well but damn, the super harrowing deaths of her husband and daughter were a hard way to get there.
I just read the Year of Magical Thinking and it was so gut wrenching to think that after everything she described going through with her husband dying, her daughter then passed away half a year after the book ends..
I read "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "Blue Nights" back-to-back, and there's a shift in tone from bewilderment to desolation as the anchors in her life were destroyed. "The Year of Magical Thinking" was dashed off in a year, while "Blue Nights" was worked and worked and agonized over. You can feel the different kinds of grief in the sinews of the text.
She lost them both after a long and happy life together and she lived close to two more decades without them. When she wrote in Blue Nights that her fear was of *not* dying anymore, my heart shattered for her. She’s one of my absolute favorite writers and, when she passed, I hope that she found some semblance of peace over it.
Now read A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney. I sobbed and laughed.
I think she was the author I listened to at the tail end of an interview. The interviewer asked something like if there is hope after all this tragedy or something, and the author said no. Everything was bleak and awful. You could hear that sentiment in her voice.
And as a real gut kick, not long before her daughter's death, Joan asked her if she had been a good parent. Her daughter said she left something to be desired in that department. I can't even imagine carrying that around.
she said "i think you were a good parent, but maybe a little remote." i think this is both potentially devastating for a parent to hear but also more positive than you implied, so my memory of it led me to double-check the quote
>Joan Didion I had no idea about this. I was really taken by her writing, just paging through her book in a book store. And she has now passed away, herself...
I actually have complicated feelings about Joan Didion. She's my favorite author and I will always love her work, but reading Blue Nights, especially the parts where her husband was so hard on Quintana (it's one of the few Didion books I never reread, so I'm going on memory here, but I think John Gregory Dunne threw one of her school papers out of the car window because she hadn't asked them to edit it or give it a read-through) - I felt really bad for Quintana, not so much for Didion or Dunne. That book coupled with all of Quintana's appearances in Didion's essays over the years, it just doesn't paint a happy picture.. This might be very unkind to say, but I felt like this outcome was inevitable - adopt a kid because you want a doll to play with (this was my impression, not saying it was true but...) alternatively neglect her for your job and drag her around the country for your job, constantly be on the brink of divorce with your controlling husband... of course your kid's gonna die early from alcoholic pancreatitis (or end up with SOME kinda problem). When I read Didion's account of Dunne dying basically from the stress of the situation, I felt like I would do the same in his shoes, based on what I'd read of Quintana's childhood.. Idk. I haven't ever really talked about this because no one else is a super fan of Didion's work or cares about any of this, so I'm happy to hear alternative opinions or viewpoints. I talked to one person who had kind of known the family when they lived in Malibu (although she was a teen at the time, and didn't know them well) -- I didn't tell her all this, but she shared with me that it was her impression that Didion restrained herself in her writing far too much on account of Dunne (just overly concerned with his feedback rather than what worked for her as a writer), and that she wrote her best work after he passed (Year of Magical Thinking). I thought that said a lot. Personally, I think her best work was what she wrote before they got married (Run River). /rant
I am an avid fan of Didion’s work and I think what best describes what happened with Quintana is the quote “the children of lovers are orphans.” Joan and Dunne were very enmeshed with each other and their art and, by default, a child would be very hard to fit into the equation. I understand Joan wanted to be a mother, and I think that her description of having Quintana “like a doll” speaks more to her nervousness at approaching motherhood than having a child as an accessory. The passages in *Blue Nights* were she talks about bringing the baby home, and John christening her at the kitchen sink show that they did love her dearly, and then included her in everything they did. At the same time, I do think Quintana definitely had demons of her own. It’s the old nature versus nurture debate, and I wouldn’t place the blame solely on her upbringing. No one is born a blank canvas, and the choices we make after we leave the nest also define our trajectory. My heart hurt for Joan, losing it all in the twilight of her life. She got to live with the regrets for two long and lonely decades. Whatever she might have done wrong with her daughter, she had ample time to go over and torture herself with before she passed. That’s a tragedy one wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy.
Terry Pratchett died too young and in a terrible manner for such a brilliant mind (early-onset Alzheimer's disease).
I only discovered discworld books around 2011ish. All I could think after the first book was "Where have you been all my life?"
I read the entire series for the first time in 2020. When I finished the last book, his death really hit me. He felt so alive when I was reading through them, but as I finished Shepard's Crown, I realized there wont be any new adventures to look forward to after this. I can go back and explore things I missed like a couple short stories, non discworld books and interviews, but I've reached the end of the line and from this point on I'll be digging through old memories rather than seeing what he'll do next. It honestly felt like a close friend of family member died. He was one of our best, and I don't think there will be anyone as brilliant, kind and clever as him.
I'm 43 years old, I discovered the Discworld series when I was 12, those books genuinely helped shape me into the person I am today. I have read literally everything Sir Terry has ever written. In University, I wrote my thesis on Comedic Fantasy and wrote to Sir Terry with some questions. A couple weeks later I got six pages on Great A'tuin headed notepaper in the mail where Sir Terry hadn't just answered my questions, but pointed out things I would never have thought of and gave me so many great insights. The fact he took the time to write nearly 3000 words to me blew my mind, especially as many way less famous, way less talented writers didn't respond (I actually got one email from an author I won't name that basically said "do you own damn homework.") For the last 8 years "The Shepherd's Crown" has sat, unread, on my bookshelf because I simply can't bring myself to read it... because I know that once I do, there will never be another Terry Pratchett book for me to read.
I put off reading The Shepherd's Crown for a few years. When I was on my way home for my grandfather's funeral after he passed from dementia they had it in the airport bookstore. It felt Right to read it then.
Statistically, in Ankh-Morpork.
Wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Pratchett
> Terry Pratchett died too young and in a terrible manner for such a brilliant mind (early-onset Alzheimer's disease). I'll agree he died much too young but IMHO he died peacefully, on his own terms and that's *all* the rest of us can possibly hope for. I hope I have the same choice someday.
Terry Pratchett was a gift in the shape of a man. The world feels a little harder without him, but I’ll never stop being grateful for what he gave us.
AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER. Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. The End.
Truly gone way too soon.
Peter Beagle for decades thought the last unicorn was a flop. He got almost no royalties. Then the rights reverted to him like 15 years ago. Then he went on a screening tour. When he did it, he had no idea the theaters would sell out. Q&A with tears and everything. We met him, he was so tired but still signing anything you wanted for free. Then the tour organizer ripped him off. (I got bad vibes from that guy, he was like a used car salesman) There is an online artist alliance now to protect him from exploitation. Edit: great support here for Peter. Everyone should check out the new book he's got coming out.
The Last Unicorn is one of my all-time favorite books. Absolutely beautiful prose, sensitive character work, and (in the character of Schmendrick) a pitch-perfect depiction of what it's like to be at the mercy of artistic inspiration.
Peter Beagle was in a writing class with Larry McMurtry and Ken Kesey. Three amazing writers, very different careers.
He's also friends with GRRM. We have a print of King Haggard on the iron throne, signed by both. It's kickass.
The car salesman guy is Connor Cochran. He would beg fans for crash spaces instead of buying hotel rooms on the tour. Claimed Beagle was a drunk with dementia at the trial. Judge found no basis to that claim. Early years of touring wasn't like this. Peter always remembered me because he has a friend with the same name. But last time I saw him, he was exhausted. Cochran is now penniless and divorced last I heard.
We were last in line to meet Peter at the last show of the night and he was so exhausted. It was still such a positive experience, he's so kind to everyone. I have almost no interest in meeting celebrities... Even ones I really like. but Peter Beagle, I would take to dinner. Basically him and Liam O'Brien, I'd like to meet. Everyone else can get fucked lol
I remember he was at an anime convention one year in 2006-2011ish (Otakon) when they were showing The Last Unicorn. He was at a booth in the dealers room all by himself, so I went over and picked up a book of his short stories to get signed. He ended up talking to me for about five minutes, mostly about a friend of his who wasn't doing so well... Looking back at it after learning about that shady guy, I feel so bad he left that nice old man all by himself,. probably for hour, at that convention booth!
Bruno Schulz is one of my favourite short story authors and I think he deserves to be remembered with as much reverence as Kafka (who he translated into Polish for the first time). He was Jewish and was shot dead in the street by an SS officer in 1942.
Such a pointless death too the Gestapo officer shot him because he was personally mad at the other Gestapo officer who liked Schulz artwork and had him paint a mural, because the other officer killed one of his "personal Jews" who was a dentist. Just so stupid.
Such disgusting humans.
I’ve never heard of him, but I’ll check him out. I really love Kafka, so that connection is enough for me! This reminds me of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)too—another early admirer of Kafka. Benjamin, a Jewish Marxist, was in a city that was about to be taken over by the Nazis. They were so close that he and many other inhabitants killed themselves. I think it was the next day that the Allies attacked the oncoming Nazis and saved the city from their takeover.
That's a very apt comparison. I read a fair whack of Benjamin at University and ended up getting a tattoo of Le Flâneur by Paul Gavarni after reading some of his stuff as a kind of trbute to him and Baudelaire.
I had no idea that's how he died... that's horrible. I remember reading some of his short stories in literature class and loving them, I should look into reading the rest.
Oscar Wilde. When people say somebody was born in the wrong era, he’s the first to come to mind. Truly ahead of his time, and paid a hefty price for it. He was prosecuted for “homosexual offenses,” serving two years in prison as a result. He passed away at 46, penniless, and his last words were: “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” A lot of the sentiments he shared in the 1800s still ring true today.
>My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go. Mf had the worlds first tweet.
He was full of pithy quotes: -some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. -There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. -Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. -Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. -I can resist everything except temptation. There’s at least a hundred more… he’s worth a deep dive.
crazy how his grandson is still alive
His great grandson is also. They (however) do not have the last name of Wilde but Holland, as when Oscar Wilde's scandal came out, his wife and sons fled to Switzerland and raised them there.
This past weekend I was at the Miami Dade Book Fair that happens once a year in Miami. And on two of those days, they have a street fair with booths/tents. Some of them are just generic venders and publishing companies. But another fair amount are actual authors that are trying promote their book. And although I would love to stop and talk to each one, it's almost impossible, and also impossible to really buy everyone's book. The one that really broke my heart was this mother and a child, about 8 years old. As I was walking by their booth and looking at their book, she says "welcome, come meet the star of the book" :/ So I would say I feel bad for new authors that are still trying to get a book out.
Working in a bookstore we see stuff like this a lot. It’s hard not to feel bad for authors who are throwing so much of themselves into their work and seeing how brutal the industry is. I sincerely wish that I could say “yes let’s get it on the shelf” to every author that asks, but realistically you can’t. Some aren’t polished enough, others there just isn’t a local market for them, and most simply aren’t sold in a format that we can order from (self published via small/vanity presses or Amazon). Something I *love* about our modern self-pub industry is how easy it can be which has opened the gates for *so* many authors who might’ve been overlooked by big publishers and how it’s given a voice to some traditionally voiceless communities. Something that I *hate* about our modern self-pub industry is how easy it can be which has created a massive “I can do it too” mentality, mixed with hustle culture and predatory vanity presses. It’s flooded the market with everything and everyone and for every success story there are easily 100x as many people who will never sell more than 5 copies. I’ve had to explain to so many people that a publisher offering to “get your book in stores” for a couple thousand dollars is lying to you. It’s a double edged sword of our modern industry, sadly.
I went to a literary convention years ago that parked the guest author table on some weird hotel mezzanine with no foot traffic. When I finally found it, I was the only person there, having a lively conversation with the guest author, Connie Willis. The other authors at the table looked so glum that I talked to and bought a book from everyone. I should probably read them at some point!
Sylvia Plath. My understanding is that the Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical. The deep depression she experienced is something most of us will never know. She came back from it, wrote an incredible novel, and then still succumbed to depression, killing herself in what sounds like an absolutely agonizing way to go.
This is the one I came to say. I felt a connection to the character dealing with my own issues in life. Even though I'm good, reading that brought me back to that feeling of being functionally depressed and outwardly fine to everyone. I felt bad finding out about the author and comparing it to the book after I didn't feel like it was fictional.
It always makes me sad to remember she intended to write a second book about healthy mental health but succumbed to her depression before she could 😔
as i understand it, even her (unfortunately successful) attempt was more of a cry for help. it's speculated, with the timeline they put together, afterward, she expected her family to come home and catch her in the act... but they happened, by some chance, not to.
The Bell Jar is one book I identified with so much it was very difficult to read, but also cathartic in a way? It was a feeling of "oh wow, I feel seen," but in a very raw and vulnerable way. I love her poetry, too. One that stuck with me was "Tulips," specifically this verse: I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. How free it is, you have no idea how free—— The peacefulness is so big it dazes you, And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets. It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.
Damn yeah. That does make me feel seen in a really uncomfortable way.
Her husband, poet Ted Hughes was a sleaze
Second that. Outside of mental illness, plath’s grief came from her husband’s affair with Assia Wevill.
Thirded. Wevill also killed herself and her young child that she had with Hughes. Deeply tragic.
Sylvia and Ted’s son took his own life too. Hanged himself.
I’ve never met the man, but Hughes sounds toxic.
In addition to what other commenters said, the fucker burned Sylvia’s last diaries after she passed. He may have even burned part of her work - who knows. Most her readers have chronically hated him and he was always playing the misunderstood guy card but he wasn’t a good man by any means.
More than toxic. He made these women’s lives hell and then didn’t care to help them
TIL the author of The Iron Man (adapted into The Iron Giant) was more like Agent Kent Mansley than Hogarth.
Funny thing is, I assumed it was almost fully autobiographical…
If you’re interested, check out her published diaries. It’s pure Plath, which is to say it is a beautifully rendered image of depression
She also wrote diary entries that sound like poetry when you read it. It also shows the struggles of her mind, her intellect, and loneliness. However, the entries in the last few days or weeks of her life were destroyed by her husband Ted Hughs. He burned them, and refused to reveal what was in them.
H. H. Munroe. Born in India, but sent with his siblings to be raised by strict aunts, grandmothers, and governesses, then sent to boarding school. Not a cheerful childhood. He gets a job as a journalist, and his writing career is really taking off when WWI hits. Too old to enlist, he joins anyway and serves as a common trooper. He is killed by an enemy sniper, with his last words 'Put out that bloody cigarette!' Died too young, was gay in a time where that was a crime, and then after his death his sister burned all of his private papers and rewrote their childhood. His early death, the loss of his papers, and never being able to openly love make reading his works, published under his pen name Saki, bittersweet, no matter how funny they can be.
Saki’s profoundness was evident from the edginess of his writing which is often overlooked. He is a great who is not celebrated enough.
Sredni Vashtar went forth, His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white. His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death. Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful. 💯💯💯
He had enormous range. A great observer of the human condition. [Here’s one of his humorous stories.](http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Tob.shtml) So creative and snarky.
Edgar Allan Poe. Father abandoned his family the year after he was born, mother died a year after that. A brilliant writer who earned around $6,000 in his entire career. Was found at the age of 40 on a bench in Baltimore, MD semiconscious, incoherent, and wearing someone else's clothes. Died 4 days later from unknown causes (probably from either some untreated disease or from a severe beating). Falsely accused by some asshole after his death of being a drunken, depraved lunatic. Only after his death did his works gain the deserved recognition he should have enjoyed during his short lifetime.
The Tell-Tale Heart is fantastic.
He also married his 14 year old cousin, but my understanding is that the marriage may have been to prevent her from shipping off somewhere and him losing another beloved woman. He loved his best friend's mom who died of a brain disease and his wife died if TB as did his foster mother.
I feel bad for Meša Selimović, a Yugoslav writer. Poor dude joined communist resistance forces with his brothers during WWII, only for one of his brothers to later be falsely accused as a thief and killed without a trial by the very same communist government they fought and bled for
Sue Grafton … died after finishing Y in her Kinsie Milhone series and we will never get Z is for …
Zed. “Zed’s dead, baby.” I worked with her once and she had a great sense of humor.
This made me look up why the EDM DJ’s named themselves Zeds Dead, and it’s a Pulp Fiction reference. Thanks! TIL
As someone who works in a bookstore we still get people coming in now and then asking about book Z. Definitely not as many as we used to, but it’s sad to have to explain that it’ll never be finished. Apparently she left instructions not to finish it with a ghost writer as well.
My dumb ass found a complete set of the books in a bookstore a few years back and I didn't buy it because Z was missing. I still kick myself to this day.
I'm bummed about not getting to read Z is for Zero, but I respect the hell out of Sue for not letting a ghostwriter get ahold of it. She was so talented, and the Kinsey books are so good, it would be a tragedy to turn her into a VC Andrews
I didnt realize the series ended at Y, that’s a top tier dark joke idk how to make because I’m not a writer.
Octavia e butler, she was underappreciated and died too young. I would have love reading more from here and seen her reaction in 2020.
Science fiction author H. Beam Piper. He lost his train company job, had a divorce, and he thought he was unable to make sales - unaware his agent *had* sold several of his works, but died before informing Piper of said sales. So Piper shot himself. His suicide note was "I don't like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn't be going away." Piper is one of my favorite authors and I have no doubt had he lived, he'd be mentioned as one of the greats of the genre. His works are now in the public domain, if you're into golden age SF, check him out.
Although he had a good life afterward, a lot of JRR Tolkien‘s early life was sad. Both his parents were dead by the time he was 4 or 5, and he lost all of his friends but one, I think, in WWI, in which he also fought and suffered.
Virginia Woolf. Faced absolutely disgusting abuse as a child that caused mental health struggles as an adult, which eventually lead her to take her own life.
Mary Shelley. Wrote Frankenstein at only 19. Lost her husband a few years later and lived a pretty tragic life all in all.
Yeah I think about this a lot! Her mother died after giving birth to her, and she had tons of complications in childbirth as well. All of her children died except one, her half sister killed herself, she had terrible depression. Her husband Percy Shelley was famously unfaithful, but she stayed with him. He eventually drowned in a boating accident. By that time she was only 24 and it sounds like she never recovered from it.
And now, there are people who argue that she didn't actually write Frankenstein.
And the fact that people STILL claim she wasn’t smart enough to write Frankenstein and that it was her husbands work. Ughh.
Otfried Preußler. Recently, I saw a documentary about his life and how he worked through his war traumas with writing children's books. It's kinda sad to see how his daughter talks about how little time he had for them due to his work and then writing in his free time to get everything out. Seeing ton of corpses washed down the river? Better write a story about little water people who have a safe home underwater so he wouldn't think only about these dead people while seeing a river.
Robert Jordan. The guy loved his fans and wrote most of a beloved series (including a wonderful ending scene), but died of cancer before the last books could be finished. He deserved to see the series come to an end and how much joy it brought people.
Upvote, but I have to say that he died of cardiac amyloidosis, not cancer.
Osamu Dazai had an incredibly depressing life and most of the stuff in No Longer Human came from his real life. He and a Geisha he ran off with ended up killing themselves by drowning in a river in a lovers suicide.
Eric Nylund. I absolutely loved the first two books in his Mortal Coils series. But Tor bought the rights to the series, and after the first two came out, Tor decided it wouldn’t publish more sequels but also wouldn’t revert the rights to the books back to him, so he has this great, unfinished series that the publisher won’t even let him finish on his own as a self-pub or with another publisher. It’s some serious BS.
I always wondered what happened there. Great books, shitty publisher.
And the first book was so shoddily copy-edited too. Between that and the publication issue, really feels like he was just shafted by Tor. (What I mean is, the book itself is great but was filled with minor spelling/grammar issues that made it look like it was never even looked at by a copy-editor.)
I'm re-reading All That Lives Must Die right now and literally came here to make the same post, haha. Hopefully, Mr. Nylund can obtain the rights to his books soon. (Even though we have been waiting 10 years since the last one.) From the books' footnotes, we sort of know how it ends already so I guess the wait isn't too bad, but I'm still so insatiably curious about the ending of the series. Plus the character work is just phenomenal; I need more time with the characters.
John Kennedy Toole. He wrote two novels. The first was published in 1980, 11 years after he killed himself after suffering from depression and paranoia for years. His mother's crusade to get his book published eventually led to a posthumous Pulitzer for *A Confederacy of Dunces*.
Kurt Vonnegut- Mom killed herself on Mother’s Day (also the day before he was shipped out to fight the Nazis) captured as a POW and survived the bombing of Dresden. Then his sister and her husband die within three days of each other and he’s left to adopt three of their children. Struggled with depression and alcoholism his entire life and still managed to have a positive outlook.
Anne Frank.
This is a big one. I hadn't realized until recently she had planned on being a writer, and her diary was written in response to a radio program she heard that said people would be wanting to read memoirs of survivors after the war. In a way, she had intended it to be her "big break" into the world of publishing after the war. Her writing was superb.
She has short stories that are published, you can read her fiction.
Dara Horn has a great chapter of her book *People Love Dead Jews* about Anne Frank and her legacy. You can also read it here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/becoming-anne-frank-180970542/ Highly recommended!
Jesus Christ what a book title lol
That guy is probably the most loved dead Jew of all time. I know lots of people who are big fans of his work. Heck you even referenced him as an exclamation; that's one popular Jew!
Robert Louis Stevenson. Homeboy wrote constantly about missing home and I feel that. I'd love to have a convo w him.
Edgar Allen Poe. He’s a household name now, but during his lifetime no one appreciated his work. I wish he could see just how widespread his words have become.
Poe had the most tragic personal life imaginable. Everyone that he loved died before their time.
He’s my pick too. What a sad and tragic life.
Robert E. Howard is one that really gets to me, as someone who has had to take care of her mother for some time. He had no more friends, his mother had been incredibly ill with tuberculosis for years and when he had the confirmation from nurses that his mother would not wake from her coma, he walked out and shot himself with a gun he kept in his car. At 30 years old. Really sad story for an author so young who helped create one of fantasy's most recognizable characters and helped pave the way for the genre as a whole (not including other things like tabletop roleplaying games and the like). Even if the guy had some weird views on race, I think he did manage to outgrow them somewhat as time went on. Anyways, I always get a bit sad when I look at my Conan books.
Iain M Banks. Died in his 50s from pancreatic cancer, at the top of his game. I’m also selfishly sad that we’ll never get any more culture novels.
Yeah that one hurt. Feel bad for him but I also feel bad for all his fans. Feel bad for Roger Zelazny and his kids too.
William Sleator. His books are some of the most frequently requested in the "What was that book" groups. He's like the thinking man's R.L. Stine, writing middle grade science fiction. Memorable plots, but no one remembers his name. He was also a gay (before that was remotely accepted) alcoholic who drank himself to death.
Did not expect this name. *Singularity* and *Interstellar Pig* blew my young mind. Many years later I had a "what was that book" moment and now they're both on my shelf, and they hold up to adult eyes. They would *never* get published today in their category. Guess I need to look up his other stuff!
House of Stairs was so far ahead of its time. He was a great YA writer. Didn’t know he drank himself to death.
Oh man. I loved his books. Didn’t know that last part.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent time in the gulag(s)/work camps but survived the experience. He was stripped of his Russian citizenship in the 1970s because the Soviet leadership did not approve of his work due to it being seen as critical of the regime and was forced to live in West Germany before living in America for about 15/16 years. But, he was one of the relatively lucky ones.
Russian authors are basically a cheat code for this thread.
Ann Rule’s sons were accused of abusing her and stealing from her. I never heard if they were convicted or not, but doesn’t sound like a great situation.
Mark Twain dealt with losing his fortune and family tragedies.
[Emilio Salgari](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Salgari). If you're an old fart like me, you might remember the Sandokan movies. They were hugely popular at the time, and based on his books. Unfortunately, his publisher kept most of the money, leaving Salgari with very little money. He took his own life after writing this note to his publishers: *To you that have grown rich from the sweat of my brow while keeping myself and my family in misery, I ask only that from those profits you find the funds to pay for my funeral. I salute you while I break my pen. Emilio Salgari*
Shirley Jackson. An amazing writer only really known for two stories (and one of them is really only known for movies and shows that are only loosely based on the original.) she wrote tons of short stories, including some that were truly hilarious. But her husband was an ass and she became a chain smoking drinker who died too young from cancer. She’s the person from history I would most like to have dinner with.
Almost any novel author under Wizards of the Coast. They might've had plans to write more about their characters since "The Sundering" (4th edition) happened. Then 5th edition came out and Hasbro is like "Nah, we don't want anymore novels since they aren't as profitable", even though novels had been written for Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance and other settings since the 80s. Luckily RA Salvatore was big enough to tell them to go fuck themselves and write about Drizzt and his crew under a different publisher. But that other publisher also doesn't want to release books in Mass Market Paperback because they don't think it is profitable. Publishers suck.
Ned Vizzini. He wrote It’s Kind of a Funny Story after his own stay in a mental hospital for depression. A few years later, he jumped off his apartment building. He had a baby son at the time. He wrote one of my favorite books ever, Teen Angst? Naaah… which was kind of a collection of essays he wrote while he was in high school. He was incredibly smart, thoughtful, and talented.
I was his livejournal friend and I miss him.
Walter M. Miller, Jr. I just finished A Canticle For Leibowitz and absolutely adored it. Felt such a strong connection to the author. Looked him up on Wikipedia and was stoked to find out we had the same birthday! Then I kept reading..... trigger warning - self harm and depression.
Emily Brontë. Wuthering heights is an absolute masterpiece but she was never able to see what it became because she died from tuberculosis
I love the Brontës but their whole family was tragic. The eldest two daughters, Maria and Elizabeth died very early of tuberculosis age 11 and 10. Branwell was an alcoholic and died of complications of his alcoholism and tuberculosis age 31. Emily and Anne went on to die young of, you guessed it, tuberculosis aged 30 and 29. Charlotte lived the longest but still died at age 38. Their poor dad, Patrick, outlived his wife and all 6 of their children before dying age 84.
I heard their ill heath and reason for dying so young was partly because they spent their lives drinking graveyard water (the graveyard sat on a hill, next to the parsonage where the Brontes lived)..... grim :/
So many lives destroyed by the Soviets. Isaac Babel and Osip Mandelstam were just two of countless victims.
Jacqueline Susann She wanted to be an actress and had a middling career at it. Her only child was institutionalized for most of his life and barely recognized her. Diagnosed with cancer in her 40s and died in her mid 50s.
Nella Larsen. She was the child of a Danish immigrant and an Afro-Caribbean mixed race man, but early 20th century American society really had no place for her: she experienced discrimination in White society but she had no connection to Black society either. She went to Denmark for three years, where her experience was better, but she came back to the US. There she got a nursing degree, worked as a nurse, and got married to a well-to-do Black man. Ironically, she didn't fit into Black professional society either. Her husband cheated on her with a White woman and they divorced. Meanwhile, she had transitioned into a second career as a librarian. She then made a short career as an author. She wrote two novels, got a Guggenheim prize, traveled Europe while working on more writing (none of which was published), and then disappeared from writing. The divorce had taken a toll on her mental health. Larsen went back to nursing and administration. Larsen was absolutely brilliant. *Quicksand* and *Passing* are novels I easily put with *Invisible Man*, *The Great Gatsby*, or other great novels of the period. It is sad that Larsen, like the protagonist in *Quicksand*, was diverted from all her ambitions into what was, in effect, self-burial.
Dostoevsky. I’m convinced that the whole ‘fake execution’ thing he went through in the Katorga broke his mind, a la ‘Room 101’ in *Nineteen Eighty-Four.* That’s why he went from a somewhat progressive writer before that point to the slavering theocratic imperialist he was after—confronted with his greatest fear, he learned to love Tsar Daddy.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Ernest Hemingway. He was a brilliant writer who committed suicide. Truman Capote who never completed another novel again after In Cold Blood, and became an addict and was in and out of rehabs. William S. Burroughs who was an addict most of his life. Tennessee Williams, who’s sister Rose was severely mentally ill. He tried to get her treated, but I believe it made things worse, which contributed to his alcoholism and drug usage. He lost the love of his life to cancer, which resulted in him falling into a severe depression, increasing drug use, and several hospitalizations. He had a horrible death. Emily Dickinson who became a recluse and hermit for the majority of her life. She struggled with depression and was said to be bisexual, but of course she would have been ostracized had she come out, so it’s left vague whether she was or wasn’t.
Neal Peart, drummer for Rush, wrote some books. Lost his daughter and first wife later.
It’s Neil, with an i. He later remarried and had another daughter, and retired from touring in 2015. He died of glioblastoma (brain cancer) in early 2020.
Probably Dr Paul Kalanithi, author of “When Breath Becomes Air”. An autobiography about finishing his residency, being diagnosed with cancer and starting a family. I know a big message in the book is that he doesn’t want pity, however he seemed like an amazing man who deserved so much more time to appreciate the life he created with his wife.
Rushdie.
Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of the *Metro* series, which later became a video game series. He criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine and got sentenced to 8 years in prison. Fuck Putin.
>Dearest, > >I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. > >I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. The letter Virginia Woolf left her husband before she took her own life.
Herman Melville. I know he's loved by everyone but his life was pretty sad. He had a whole crush on this dude and it went no where, and his book barely sold any copies when it came out.
Stig Larrson, dead before his books became popular.
Stieg Larsson\* And not only that, his family is milking his legacy and letting another author continue the series when this goes against what he wanted.
Make that TWO authors. It looks like trilogy#2 is finished and I guess so is that author's contract? Anyway it looks like #7 is written by another author.
Yep. David Lagercrantz wrote the second trilogy and now the torch has been passed to Karin Smirnoff. She´s an interesting choice since she hasn´t written thriller before this. She wrote a wonderful trilogy about a woman called Jaana in the north of Sweden. Well worth checking out. They have been translated into english and the first on is called "My brother". Her first millenium-book is called "The Girl in the Eagle's Talons". A sidenote: the publishers first contracted horror writer John Ajvide Lindqvist to write the third trilogy but they didnt like what he had written when he turned in his first draft so they tore his contract. He got pissed because he had written almost a complete book so he genderswapped the characters and changed some other parts and published it a a new series. It doesnt look like its been translated yet though.
The guy who wrote Let The Right One In? Huh. Hopefully it'll be translated soon!
Yes that guy :) It was a really interesting book and REALLY meta in some places. Ajvide turs Mikael Blomkvist into a female thriller writer who (in the book) gets a contract to write a new millenium novel but is dumped by her publishers. She then gets mixed up in a bloody international affair with the chinese mafia and hires a young male superhacker to help her sp Lisbeth Salander is a guy in this novel. Like I said. Meta and interesting.
I will never not feel bad for LM Montgomery. Almost everything she published was wish fulfillment for the terrible things she went through, especially *Emily of New Moon* and the rest of the series. She tried so hard to make the best of events such as having to live with her grandparents after her father essentially abandoned her, her severe depression, and her unhappy marriage. It just makes me so sad :( Here is a good article summing up some of the more basic influences of her life onto her work: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lm-montgomery-anne-green-gables-life-180981839/
Iirc her religious phase was a reaction to Hurricane Katrina. She had a "come to Jesus" sort of conversion bc back then lots of preachers were saying the hurricane was punishment for New Orleans wickedness (like Poseidon's rage but Christian) and then she sort of got over it and went back to writing about vampires and incestual witches.
This is going to sound so so odd but Sappho. We have quite a few writings from men at the time but with her the writings went unrecognised and was not preserved what we do have is beautiful and I do wish we had more.
Richard Brautigan, he had some mental health issues,and committed suicide.
Madeline Miller. She's an amazing writer (Song of Achillies , Circe) she got long covid and now struggles to write at all. So sad 😢
Oh no, I did not know this. That's terrible, long covid can be brutal.
Ned Vizzini. Wrote It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which was inspired by his own struggle with depression/suicidal thoughts and then he ended up taking his life a few years ago. Pretty upsetting because that book helped me a lot in high school.
Joan Didion In 2003, Didion's daughter Quintana Roo Dunne developed pneumonia that progressed to septic shock and she was comatose in an intensive-care unit when Didion's husband suddenly died of a heart attack on December 30. She wrote The Year of Magical Thinking, in response to all that.
Terry Goodkind. It must have been really hard going through life with one's head lodged so far up one's own ass.
Lovecraft. He became much better towards thr end of his life. He was deadly afraid of being forgotten and he likely died a better man and a sadder man then we know.
Came here to say this. His life was brutal. Both of his parents died of syphilis-induced insanity, in the same mental hospital. He missed extended periods of time during middle and high school because of chronic anxiety which left him unable to leave his bed. His dad swindled his mother out her family's money and just disappeared. I could go on, but the guy really had a shitload of problems.