Jules Renard

popular name: Mary Shelley

date_of_death: February 1, 1851

age: 53

cause_of_death: Brain tumor

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was an English novelist, best known for writing Frankenstein, one of the most influential works in the horror genre. She was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the daughter of the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft and philosopher William Godwin. Her mother died only 11 days after her birth, leaving her with a strong intellectual legacy and a challenging childhood. In 1814, at the age of 16, Mary began a romantic relationship with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Despite societal taboos, they eloped to France in 1816, where they faced personal hardships, including the death of their first child. That same year, during a summer spent with Lord Byron at Lake Geneva, she conceived the idea for Frankenstein, which was published in 1818 when she was just 20. Percy Shelley died in 1822 in a drowning accident, leaving Mary a widow with a young son. She continued to write and publish, but struggled financially and emotionally. She wrote novels, short stories, travelogues, and biographies, though none gained the lasting fame of Frankenstein. She also edited and promoted Percy’s works. Mary Shelley died on February 1, 1851, from a brain tumor at the age of 53. She left behind a legacy as a pioneering figure in Gothic literature and a trailblazer for women in literature, particularly through her groundbreaking work with Frankenstein, which explored themes of creation, responsibility, and the human condition. She was laid to rest at St. Peter's Church in Bournemouth UK.

popular name: Edith Anisfield Wolf

date_of_death: January 23, 1963

age: 73

cause_of_death: Unknown

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Edith Anisfield Wolf was an American poet and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio who founded and endowed an award in 1935 for non-fiction books that advance racial understanding. In 1941 the foundation expanded the award, now called the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, to include fiction and poetry. Notable recipients during Wolf’s lifetime included Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King Jr. Notable recipients after her death have included Alex Haley, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Derek Walcott, Wole Soyinka, Ralph Ellison, Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey. The awards, $1,000 per recipient in the 1930s, now amount to $10,000 each.

popular name: Dominick Dunne

date_of_death: August 26, 2009

age: 83

cause_of_death: Bladder cancer

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Dominick Dunne was an American writer, investigative journalist, and producer. He started as a producer in film and television, and is noted for involvement with the pioneering gay film The Boys in the Band (1970) and the award-winning drug film The Panic in Needle Park (1971). He turned to writing in the early 1970s. After the 1982 murder of his daughter Dominique, he came to focus on the ways in which wealth and high society interacts with the judicial system. Famous trials he covered included those of O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bulow, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, and the Menendez brothers. Dunne was a frequent contributor to Vanity Fair, from the 1980s, and also appeared regularly on television discussing crime.