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: Joseph Pulitzer

date_of_death: October 29, 1911

age: 64

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Writers and Poets

best_know_for: Joseph Pulitzer was a Hungarian-born American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World. He became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party and was elected congressman from New York. He crusaded against big business and corruption, and helped keep the Statue of Liberty in New York. In the 1890s the fierce competition between his World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal caused both to develop the techniques of yellow journalism, which won over readers with sensationalism, sex, crime and graphic horrors. Today, his name is best known for the Pulitzer Prizes, which were established in 1917 as a result of his endowment to Columbia University. The prizes are given annually to recognize and reward excellence in American journalism, photography, literature, history, poetry, music, and drama. Pulitzer founded the Columbia School of Journalism by his philanthropic bequest; it opened in 1912.

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.