Weirdest Writer Deaths

The two most written about themes in fiction? Love and death. Yet however strange the circumstances that writers may invent, real circumstances of death are often weirder than anything that anyone could imagine.

Writers themselves aren't immune from the surreal whims of the reaper. Here are some of the most bizarre ways that writers have had their story end.

Know of another unusual way that a writer died? Let us know in the comments!

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Tennessee Williams

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The author of such plays as "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "The Glass Menagerie" choked to death on the cap of a bottle of eyedrops. Doctors believe that the empty bottle of wine and various prescription pill bottles found next to him may have had something to do his restrained gag reflex.

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The author of such plays as "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "The Glass Menagerie" choked to death on the cap of a bottle of eyedrops. Doctors believe that the empty bottle of wine and various prescription pill bottles found next to him may have had something to do his restrained gag reflex.

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The Way Their Story Ended

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Top 5 Weirdest Writer Deaths

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Comments

[Cornelius Conboy]

08:17 PM on 08/22/2011

The great Jean Cocteau had a fatal heart attack upon being told of Edith Piaf's death.

[Arlyn Lichthardt]

03:24 PM on 08/22/2011

The remarkable thing about all of these creators is not their mortality, but the immortality of their work. Regardless of how they died, they're not dead!

[grimalkintoo]

12:22 AM on 08/19/2011

Though mainly a dancer and teacher, Isadora Duncan possibly qualifies due to her extremely popular and critically-acclaimed autobiography, "My Life," published in 1927. Her plans for a sequel were interrupted by her untimely death in September of that year. She loved to wear long, flowing scarves around her neck. While riding in an open car on the Riviera, her scarf got caught in the spokes of a rear wheel and axel. It strangled her and she is said to have been nearly decapitated as well.

[cassybski9]

11:56 PM on 08/17/2011

Has anyone got Tolstoy yet? Pretty ironic that he died in a train station after writing about his heroine's death in a train station...

[Allan H Clark]

06:06 PM on 08/17/2011

Pietro Aretino is supposed to have died from laughing too hard.

[babby201]

09:51 PM on 08/16/2011

Actually ,Tennasee Wiliams choked on the cap from a bottle of Butyl Nitrate ,more commonly known as Poppers.
An inhalent used for sexual arousal , sometimes also sold under the label 'Locker Room' , or 'Rush' for the straight market , but this crap gets legally sold as electronics cleaner.
this is a substitute for the original Amyl Nitrate, which is used for angina ,but had the effect of making one high and horny.

[C Allyn Pierson]

10:57 AM on 08/16/2011

Your description of Sherwood Anderson's death is not correct. He died in Panama while on a cruise to South America. An autopsy showed that his colon had been perforated by a previously swallowed toothpick and he died of peritonitis. This is not something that happens the same day, even if it was the abscess you described- it would take days (if not weeks) for an abscess to form, and for a toothpick to get to his colon, perforate it, and then cause peritonitis would take about the same period of time.

[sevenzarkseven]

11:57 AM on 08/15/2011

How about Yukio Mishima? He and his followers committed seppuku after a failed coup attempt at a military base.

[Joseph Scott]

02:40 PM on 08/15/2011

It's said he moved the knife across his abdomen, after plunging it into the hilt, an astonishing 18 inches....that's hard to imagine.
Pretty good for a writer. He was also a famous military enthusiast and wanted to bring back the way of the warrior, and was a homosexual, though I'm not sure what bearing that had on his cult - like fame, or his cult-like beliefs.
At any rate,
wild.
Very wild.

[PatrickforO]

03:34 AM on 08/15/2011

Whoa. I never knew Aeschylus died like that. Geez, that's right out of something like Final Destination. "Hey, watch out for that eagle!"

[babby201]

09:52 PM on 08/16/2011

or like the opening of 'Six feet under'

[racerx690]

12:31 AM on 08/15/2011

Three of these deaths are legends. The greek ( a turtule), the chinese poet (embracing a reflection) and the french guy (ate to much). I doubt a turtle fell on one, the chineese haqve romanizied a drowning, and the frenchman probably ate something tainted, since it is highly improbable to eat yourself to death. The rest are correct execpt for the toohpick. He may have swallowed it, and may have died from it, but it was not an abcess on the same night. an abcess takes time to form, it is an infection. he could have perforated his intestines, and then died days later, or punctured an artery and bled out, but you do not get an abcess in a few hours. In the old West, a common tourture was to shoot someone in the stomach, it took days to die from the painful infection.

[cristiemayor]

10:41 PM on 08/14/2011

Oh, just thought of another one! Lord Byron, poet and lover and outcast: a recent examination of his medical records and remains led the doctors to conclude that he was bled to death by his own doctors. (I never have figured out how anyone ever thought bleeding was a cure for anything.)

[camanokat]

10:12 AM on 08/15/2011

It's a cure for too much iron in the blood.

[cristiemayor]

10:32 PM on 08/14/2011

Ambrose Bierce: he collected tales of the macbre, the impossible, the mysterious and creepy--and he disappered without a trace while in Mexico--and he was surrounded by people too. They just turned around ad he was gone. I guess he collected so many creepy tales that he got collected himself.

[patrick2574]

08:05 PM on 08/14/2011

The Aeschylus death is most likely a legend that developed long after his death. Another bizarre death: the poet Frank O'Hara was run over by a dune buggy on Fire Island. What a away to go.

[jimfurl179]

09:54 PM on 08/14/2011

I believe the Aeschylus death was the subject of a recent CSI episode with a so called "monk" met his demise in a similar way. Solved by the great Ray Langston (played Laurence Fishburne).

[lesaltatum]

02:32 AM on 08/15/2011

CSI NY made a reference to it also in one of their episodes.

[hpnerdandproud]

06:40 PM on 08/14/2011

No Edgar Allan Poe? He was found unconscious on a street, wearing someone else's clothes. He in a hospital later. (At least I think he was taken to a hospital. He may have died on the street. I'm not sure.)

[YourNewNeighbor]

04:59 PM on 08/14/2011

Blues great Robert Johnson died when one of his girlfriends poisoned his coffee.

Wish he would have written a book.

[donnyraindog]

11:02 PM on 08/16/2011

I believe it was a bartender whose wife he was hitting on.

[signgrrl]

09:35 AM on 08/17/2011

i was pretty sure i remember reading it was a jealous husband. thanks.

[Howard Latchford]

01:48 AM on 08/18/2011

I wish he *had written* a book. "Would" does not belong here.