# Dead writers - wish they weren't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681 "2003-11-22T14:48:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/21 "2003-11-23T07:26:27Z")
A strong agreement on Zelazny, Heinlein and Piper. (Yes, Piper was every bit as good as the best in SF -or “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen,” alone, would earn him a place at that table). I’d also suggest **Theodore Sturgeon** who wrote absolutely gut-grabbing stuff with more heart than anyone I can think of. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/22 "2003-11-23T07:40:57Z")
**Robert Heinlein** **William Shakespear** I often wondered what Shakespeare would look and sound like if he were alive today. ---
**Author:** ![eli\_the\_fanatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ccd318/32.png) [@eli\_the\_fanatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eli_the_fanatic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/23 "2003-11-23T07:43:14Z")
I think he’d look like hell. He’d be over 400 years old, after all! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/24 "2003-11-23T07:47:02Z")
P.G Wodehouse. There aren’t enough Jeeves stories. ---
**Author:** ![Shana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shana)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/25 "2003-11-23T07:47:48Z")
Jane Austin Isak Dinesen JRR Tokien EM Forster Shelley Sylvia Plath Anne Sexton…to name but a few! Oh, and **Guinastasia** …I completely agree about **V. C. Andrews**! Thought I was the only one with that guilty pleasure…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Innanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecd19e/32.png) [@Innanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innanna)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/26 "2003-11-23T09:24:36Z")
Senconding Anne George. After Reading her books, I felt like I knew her. Much sadness. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/27 "2003-11-23T13:33:20Z")
I do with F. Scott Fitzgerald had the chance to write a few more books, but he’d be gone now anyway. So I think Douglas Adams is number one for me. I was really heartbroken when he died. He was 49, if memory serves. I don’t think I’ve cried over the deaths of any other famous people, but I sure did for him. On top of how much I enjoyed the Hitchhiker’s books, I always had the sense he and I would’ve gotten on well if I’d had the chance to meet him. His passing seems to have derailed the proposed Hitchhiker’s movie as well. ---
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/28 "2003-11-23T19:36:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Innanna \* > \*\*Douglas Adams. And he was right in the middle of something new, too. ☹ \*\* I know, have you read The Salmon of Doubt, yet? it’s marvellous. I’m re-reading the Hitch hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a Trilogy in 5 parts, again. I was enjoying it so much that I cursed him for dropping dead due to a heart attack. It was what prompted this thread. … ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/29 "2003-11-23T19:50:56Z")
I’ll second (or third) P.K. Dick and Douglas Adams. Asimov too. And Patrick O’Brian. But I really wish Raymond Carver hadn’t died. And I wish Albert Camus had lived longer. He was born in 1913, so he’d be getting on in years now, but he didn’t need to die in that car accident. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/30 "2003-11-23T20:01:30Z")
I agree with Fern. Roger Zelazny. ---
**Author:** ![Innanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecd19e/32.png) [@Innanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innanna)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/31 "2003-11-23T20:44:51Z")
* * * ## Originally posted by Innanna Douglas Adams. And he was right in the middle of something new, too. ☹ > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfje \* > \*\*I know, have you read The Salmon of Doubt, yet? > it’s marvellous. I’m re-reading the Hitch hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a Trilogy in 5 parts, again. > > I was enjoying it so much that I cursed him for dropping dead due to a heart attack. > It was what prompted this thread. > > … \*\* Oh yes. And I saw such potential there, in the parts of the new book that was never to be. So frustrating. I find that I re-read the dirk gently stuff and the Trilogy about once a year. And still laugh. Quite an accomplishment. ---
**Author:** ![cletus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/32 "2003-11-24T12:21:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \* > \*\*As for Dick, _Radio Free Albemuth_ was his last book and it expands on the whole _Valis_ thing and to a degree _A Scanner Darkly_ as well. I would love to see what he was working on as well. \*\* Oops, I was under the impression that VALIS was his last. Thanks for letting me know. I’ve been trying to check out _Radio Free Albemuth_ but it’s always unavailable at the library. I’m looking forward to it though. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/33 "2003-11-24T12:55:16Z")
I also miss Douglas Adams. There’s intresting news for us Heinlein fans. Along with the “new” novel _For Us, the Living_, it seems that none other than Spider Robinson will be completing a novel outlined by RAH nearly 50 years ago… [In case y’all haven’t heard about it…](http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=&selm=3FB36C38.B9D8164@shaw.ca) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/34 "2003-11-24T13:38:27Z")
C.S. Lewis and James Herriot. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/35 "2003-11-24T13:50:34Z")
Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Byron, and Shel Silverstein. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/36 "2003-11-24T13:53:56Z")
Yeah, Shel! Good one, **HDS**. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/37 "2003-11-24T14:01:20Z")
I miss him. I’ve been reading his adult stuff and I love how it flows. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/38 "2003-11-24T20:56:25Z")
Franklin W. Dixon. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/39 "2003-11-24T21:29:30Z")
James Clavell. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/40 "2003-11-25T01:47:34Z")
Has anybody mentioned John Kennedy Toole? His great _A Confderacy of Dunces_ was published posthumously, after his mother carted the manuscript around to different publishers. What else might have emerged from that fevered brain? Robert E. Howard was only 30 when he shot himself, unable to face his mother’s imminent death. His Conan stories may not be your cup of tea, but he wrote with vigor and imagination, and who knows how he would have matured. Cyril Kornbluth was cut off early because of high blood pressure. The medication that kept it under control (what was available in the 1950’s) dulled his ability to create, so he took his chances and dropped dead running for a train. At 16, he was writing better, tighter short stories than many veteran writers, and in his thirties was developing into one of the major voices in science fiction. Isaac Asimov published 500 books; I wish he’d had time for 500 more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681.md?page=3)