Literary suicide

  

 

Robert E. Howard dreamed of becoming an adventure writer since he was a child. At age 23, his dream came true. He created the character Conan the Barbarian. One of the best-selling fantasy writers of all time, his works are still reprinted to this day.

In June 1936, Howard’s mother was gravely ill and had slipped into her final coma. Howard, who had been sitting vigil at her bedside, left the hospital and, while sitting in his car in the parking lot, shot himself in the head. While his wounds were grave, he did hold on for another eight hours before he passed away. His final words read, “All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre, the feast is over and the lamps expire.”

 

Hunter S. Thompson was the founder of the gonzo journalism movement. Thompson grappled with depression for most of his life, his then-recent hip replacement and broken leg caused him weeks of pain and immobility. On February 20, 2005, while on the phone with his wife Anita, Thompson shot himself to death. He left a note entitled “Football Season Is Over” which read, “No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun – for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax – This won't hurt.”

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a utopian feminist born in 1860. A humanist, she spread her beliefs through her novels, short stories, poetry, and as a lecturer for social reform.

In January 1932, Gilman received the news that she had been diagnosed with incurable breast cancer. As an advocate of euthanasia, it was her firm belief that people should be allowed to die in peace without suffering. On August 17, 1935, she committed suicide by overdosing on chloroform, leaving behind her final words, “When all the usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”

  Poet Vachel Lindsay is considered the founder of singing poetry. His fame began to grow in 1910 and, by 1915, he was reciting his works for President Woodrow Wilson. However, he was constantly struggling financially especially during The Great Depression. On December 5, 1931, he committed suicide by consuming a bottle of lye. The last words of this ever so articulate and poetic thinker were “They tried to get me; I got them first.”

 

Nicholas-Sebastian Chamfort was a French writer best known for his epigrams, aphorisms, and stimulating conversation. He became a radicalized Republican during the French Revolution and his criticisms eventually landing him in prison. 

After his release, he was threatened with additional jail time which he could not tolerate. Instead of facing a court, Chamfort shot himself in the face. His suicide note read, “I, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort, hereby declare my wish to die a free man rather than to continue to live as a slave in a prison."

 

Poet Sara Teasdale released four collections of poetry, one of which earned her a Pulitzer Prize. Although she and Vachel Lindsay were in love, she married Ernst Filsinger who left her feeling lonely as he was away from home the majority of the time. Two years after Lindsay’s suicide of Lindsay, Teasdale also took her life by overdosing on sleeping pills. Her suicide note entitled I Shall Not Care read, “When I am dead and over me bright April Shakes out her rain-drenched hair, Tho' you should lean above me broken-hearted, I shall not care. I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful, When rain bends down the bough, And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted Than you are now.”