Ellen Glasgow

popular name: Franz Kafka

date_of_death: June 3, 1924

age: 40

cause_of_death: Laryngeal tuberculosis and starvation

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Bohemian writer born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now the Czech Republic). He is widely regarded as one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century. Kafka was born into a middle-class Jewish family and had a complicated relationship with his domineering father, which deeply influenced his writing. He studied law at the University of Prague and worked for much of his life in insurance, writing in his spare time. Kafka’s works often explore themes of alienation, absurdity, and the oppressive power of bureaucracy, with his most famous stories including The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. His distinctive style blends realism with surreal, nightmarish scenarios, reflecting a sense of existential dread. Despite writing prolifically, Kafka published only a few works during his lifetime and instructed his friend Max Brod to destroy his manuscripts after his death. Brod ignored these wishes and instead edited and published much of Kafka’s work, securing his posthumous reputation. Upon his passing, the grave of Franz Kafka can be found at New Jewish Cemetery in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

popular name: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

date_of_death: March 24, 1882

age: 75

cause_of_death: Aliments related to peritonitis

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most widely known and best-loved American poets of the 19th century. He achieved a level of national and international prominence previously unequaled in the literary history of the United States and is one of the few American writers honored in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey

popular name: Norman Mailer

date_of_death: November 10, 2007

age: 84

cause_of_death: Acute renal failure

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Norman Mailer was a writer and serial philanderer and homophobe who enjoyed violence against women - both in his writings and in real life. He wasn't just callous and amoral, he relished violence. Mailer stabbed his wife, Adele Morales, in a drunken rage in November 1960 and beat his fourth wife repeatedly. And if that weren't bad enough, Mailer championed the release of an inmate, Jack Henry Abbott, who murdered a young waiter in Greenwich Village just weeks after getting parole in 1981. Consequently his standing as a great American writer quickly diminished upon his death.