Ellen Glasgow

popular name: Dashiell Hammett

date_of_death: January 10, 1961

age: 66

cause_of_death: Lung cancer

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: The name Dashiell Hammett is synonymous with the "hard-boiled" genre of detective fiction. Born Samuel Dashiell Hammett, he worked as a detective in his early twenties and later wrote numerous popular mystery novels, most famously "The Maltese Falcon" (1930) and "The Thin Man" (1931). Hammett enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1918 and served in the Motor Ambulance Corps, but spent most of World War I hospitalized for influenza and tuberculosis. Hammett enlisted again after Pearl Harbor, at the age of 48, and was stationed at a base in the Aleutian Islands. A vocal supporter of civil liberties and left-leaning causes, Hammett was blacklisted as a suspected communist during the early Cold War, and he served six months in jail for refusing to divulge the names of those who helped fund an activist group that he led.

popular name: Lewis Carroll

date_of_death: January 14, 1898

age: 65

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in Daresbury, England, was an English writer, mathematician, logician, and photographer, best known for his iconic works Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). Carroll was the eldest boy of 11 children and attended Rugby School and then attended Oxford University in 1850. He would remain at Christ Church as student, teacher and in various others roles until his death. Despite his academic success, his true passion lay in writing and storytelling. Under the pen name Lewis Carroll, he began writing stories and poems, blending fantasy, logic, and wordplay. His most famous works, the Alice books, originated from a storytelling session for the young Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church. These books became celebrated for their imaginative narratives, playful language, and deep philosophical undertones, earning Carroll a lasting place in literary history. Carroll was also a pioneering photographer, particularly known for his portraits of young girls, including Alice Liddell. His photography career, however, has been the subject of some controversy due to his obsession with young subjects. Though Carroll spent much of his life in relative obscurity, his works gradually gained fame, and he became a beloved figure in British literature. Upon his death, Carroll was buried at Mount Cemetery in Guildford UK.

popular name: Ayn Rand

date_of_death: March 6, 1982

age: 77

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Ayn Rand escaped to the United States, where she would eventually publish four novels and a handful of political screeds encouraging selfishness and a lack of concern for others. After the release of her third novel The Fountainhead, Rand began to attract young followers. Few authors have influenced the alt-right more than Russian-American cult leader Ayn Rand. Rand is best known for her fourth novel Atlas Shrugged: a story about how rich industrialist super-humans should wipe out the ordinary mortals and bring about a paradise just for selfish people who like all the same things as Ayn Rand. The problem is that Atlas Shrugged has had a profound influence on a lot of powerful people, who spend their lives trying to dismantle the institutions that vulnerable people depend on to survive. Objectivism teaches that the rich should be free to do whatever they want, no matter how many people get hurt. Later in life she lost her husband to the ravages of alcoholism (a habit born out of Ayn openly cheating with a younger man) and was hemorrhaging money due to cancer surgery and a 30-year addiction to amphetamines. So it came as no surprise when she asked her lawyer to secure social security and Medicare payments using her legal name of Alice O'Connor. That's right - in her own words her books provided wide-ranging parables of "parasites," "looters" and "moochers" using the levers of government to steal the fruits of her heroes' labor. In the real world, however, Rand herself received Social Security payments and Medicare benefits under the name of Ann O'Connor (her husband was Frank O'Connor). Upon her passing the grave of Ayn Rand can be found at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York - just a short distance from legendary musician Tommy Dorsey.