Mary Shelley

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: Thomas Wolfe

date_of_death: September 15, 1938

age: 37

cause_of_death: Miliary tuberculosis

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Thomas Wolfe is considered one of the most autobiographical novelists in American literature and is probably the greatest writer to come out of North Carolina. During his short life he wrote four novels; Look Homeward, Angel, Of Time and the River, The Web and the Rock, and You Can’t Go Home Again, as well as numerous short stories, novellas, and plays. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His books, written and published from the 1920s to the 1940s, vividly reflect on American culture and the mores of that period, filtered through Wolfe's sensitive, sophisticated, and hyper-analytical perspective. After Wolfe's death, contemporary author William Faulkner said that Wolfe might have been the greatest talent of their generation for aiming higher than any other writer. Wolfe's influence extends to the writings of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, and of authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, NC.

popular name: Nellie Bly

date_of_death: January 27, 1922

age: 57

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Cochran on May 5, 1864, in Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania, was a pioneering American journalist, industrialist, and humanitarian best known for her groundbreaking investigative reporting. She gained national recognition in 1887 when she feigned insanity to expose the harsh conditions at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, resulting in her famous exposé Ten Days in a Mad-House, which revolutionized mental health care. Bly also gained fame for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, inspired by Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days. As one of the first female investigative journalists, she challenged the traditional roles of women in journalism with her bold, immersive reporting style. Later in life, she became a businesswoman and continued advocating for social reform until her death on January 27, 1922. She was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.