Ellen Glasgow

popular name: Jean Giono

date_of_death: October 8, 1970

age: 75

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Jean Giono was a French writer who spent his entire life living and writing in Manosque, France. It was here that the author created his monumental oeuvre, inspired by the sun-drenched footpaths and unbridled natural scenery that was his home. Following in his footsteps visitors will cross the landscapes he described so vividly, from Gréoux-les-Bains to Forcalquier where his work A King Alone was born. Among his novels, the most famous are “Colline” (“The Hill”) of 1929, “Regain” (“Re covety”) of 1930, “Le Chant du Monde” (“Song of the World”) of 1934, “Que Ma Joie De meure” (“Let My Joy Remain”) of 1935, “L'Eau Vive” (“Lively Water”) of 1944, “Les Ames Mortes” (“The Dead Souls”) of 1949, “Le Hussard sur le Toit” (“The Hussard on the Roof”) of 1951 and “Le Moulin de Po logne” (“The Polish Mill”) 1952. Outside France, Giono's best-known work is probably the short story The Man who Planted Trees (and 1987 film version). This optimistic tale of a man who brings a deserted valley back to life by planting trees reflects Giono's long-standing love of the natural world, an attitude that made him a precursor to the modern ecological movement. In his later years, Giono was honoured with the Prince Rainier of Monaco literary prize in 1953, awarded for his lifetime achievements, was elected to the Académie Goncourt in 1954, and became a member of the Conseil Littéraire of Monaco in 1963.

popular name: Honoré de Balzac

date_of_death: August 18, 1850

age: 51

cause_of_death: Gangrene associated with congestive heart failure

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was one of the most influential writers of 19th-century French literature and a central figure in the development of literary realism. After initially studying law and briefly working in publishing and printing—ventures that left him deeply in debt—Balzac turned seriously to writing in the 1820s. He gained recognition for his ambitious project, La Comédie humaine, a vast collection of interconnected novels and stories that portrayed French society in the decades following the French Revolution and during the Bourbon Restoration. Over his career, Balzac produced more than 90 works, including major novels such as Père Goriot and Eugénie Grandet, which explored themes of ambition, class mobility, wealth, and moral struggle. Known for his intense writing habits—often fueled by large amounts of coffee—Balzac developed richly detailed characters who reappeared across different stories, creating a unified literary universe. Despite constant financial pressures and health problems, he continued writing prolifically until his death in 1850, leaving a body of work that profoundly influenced later novelists and helped shape the modern realist novel.

popular name: Emily Dickinson

date_of_death: May 15, 1886

age: 55

cause_of_death: Heart failure induced by severe hypertension

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Emily Dickinson is one of America’s greatest and most original poets of all time. She took definition as her province and challenged the existing definitions of poetry and the poet’s work. Like writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, she experimented with expression in order to free it from conventional restraints. Like writers such as Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, she crafted a new type of persona for the first person. A lyric poet who lived in seclusion and commanded a singular brilliance of style and integrity of vision, together with Walt Whitman Dickinson is widely considered to be one of the two leading 19th-century American poets.