5 Writers Who Died a Mysterious Death — GoBookMart

3 min readJan 8, 2022

It often happens that we dwell with a plot or novel in search of the clue why exactly was this written and to whom it was dedicated — but it remains an enigma like the youthful boy of Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare. But in this article, we are not going to talk about the characters, but the character builder and the enigma of death. Here is a list of 5 writers who died a mysterious death.

Edgar Allan Poe (October 7, 1849)

Among several theories about Poe’s unexpected death in the Church Home & Hospital of Baltimore, the highest-flying one is alcoholism. The writer of ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ was a heavy drinker and people say he probably met a few friends and got drunk that caused his death. Some assume it could be beating because he was drunk and alone on the streets he could have been robbed and beaten up, as people say he was not in his clothes when he was found. Some believe the American writer could have been a victim of cooping, a method of abduction and forcing people to vote for a certain candidate. Another theory concludes he died of carbon monoxide or heavy metal poisoning, brain tumor, flu, or rabies.

Tennessee Williams (February 25, 1983)

At the age of 71, he was found dead in his suite at the Hotel Elysee, NY. Elliot M. Gross, chief medical examiner of NYC reported that he died due to inhaling the bottle cap of a nasal spray or eye solution. But this report was corrected in 1983 on August 14, and it was reported that the author of A Streetcar Named Desire died because he used a plastic cap to ingest barbiturates and died from a high toxic level of Seconal.

Mark Twain (April 21, 1910)

The death of the writer of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is mysterious because the writer kind of surmised and foreseen his death day. Samuel Clemens or Mark Twain was born on the same day as Halley’s Comet was seen which happens seldom in every 75–76 years. The writer predicted that he will die the next time the comet will be visible again and the next time it was visible was in 1910 and he died after the day of sighting. Eerie, isn’t it?

Virginia Woolf (March 28, 1941)

After the tragic dawn of World War II, on March 28, 1941, Virginia Woolf filled the pocket of her overcoat with rocks and drowned herself into the River Ouse located behind her house in Lewes, England. The long-lived mental illness finally took over her life. She left behind her diary, magnificent essays, one of the most charming love letters in literature, a stirring last letter to her husband Leonard Woolf, and heartbroken friends. Even after the death of the author, the assumptions and words did not disappear but this time it was not her homosexuality or her writings it was about her mental health on which she was considered ‘sensitive’ and her last letter to her husband was misinterpreted and misrepresented.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (July 8, 1822)

The Romantic poet died at the age of 29 of an unusual boat accident. His boat drowned due to a storm on the coast of the Gulf of Spezia. It is not unusual to die to drown but the surreal questions surrounding it make it more doubtful. People say it was not the bad weather that caused him to fall off the boat but it could be that the bat was defective or it might have collided with another boat, or perhaps he committed suicide. Nonetheless, this enigma is not going to get solved and none of the theories are going to make any proper sense.

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Originally published at https://gobookmart.com on January 8, 2022.