# Has an author ever died while you were reading their book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388 "2013-03-30T22:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/21 "2013-04-01T03:47:11Z")
Ralph Ellison died while I was reading _Invisible Man_ in high school. I found it strangely eerie at the time. If Steig Larsson dies (which he can’t, since he’s already dead) while I read _The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest_ this week, I doubt I’d think much about it. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/22 "2013-04-01T05:40:57Z")
I had just started reading all of the Novels of the Company when Kage Baker died. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/23 "2013-04-02T02:03:23Z")
The closest I’ve come was when I read an annotated version of _Lolita_ by Nabokov, with the annotations written by a local college professor named Alfred Appel Jr. Appel died about a month after I finished reading it. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/24 "2013-04-02T02:06:13Z")
> [@3trew](#): > > Some authors have only avoided this fate by not being within arm’s reach while I was reading their books. 😃 I LOLed at this… ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/25 "2013-04-02T17:16:32Z")
I’ve been looking for a couple of days for my post about this. Maybe two years ago I read a review of a mystery by a Canadian author whose name I can’t remember. It sounded good so I wrote it on the list I keep in my wallet. Next time I went to the library I borrowed it, and it was indeed good, so I went to google him to see what else he’d written. I learned that he had died unexpectedly the day before. Pretty young guy, too. Can’t find who it was. Whenever I search all I get is Louise Penny, who is female and not dead. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/26 "2016-05-03T19:14:27Z")
I just stumbled on this three-year-old thread in a search, and I’m zombifying it to mention that I was in the middle of \*The Light Fantastic \*when Terry Pratchett died. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/27 "2016-05-03T20:46:26Z")
I was reading From Dawn to Decadence when Jacques Barzun died, but to be fair, it is 900 pages long, and he was 93 when it was published (although he then lived to 104). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/28 "2016-05-03T23:55:35Z")
Not quite, but I had _The Satanic Verses_ out from the library when the fatwa on Salman Rushdie was proclaimed. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/29 "2016-05-04T01:38:38Z")
Was just finishing the last chapter of _A Tale of Two Cities_ when poor Mr. Dickens passed. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/30 "2016-05-04T01:58:41Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > I was reading a Stephen King book when he got hit by the car and nearly died. Well, geez, don’t read while you’re _driving_. That’s just common sense. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/31 "2016-05-04T02:52:42Z")
So if you’re reading his book when he dies, who do you return it to? His spouse? Whoever’s in charge of his estate? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/32 "2016-05-04T03:14:43Z")
Was reading **Kon-Tiki**. Finished the last page and set it down. Pulled up CNN. [“Norwegian explorer dies.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl) Whaaaaaat? ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/33 "2016-05-04T04:09:01Z")
Abbie Hoffman, Steal this Urine Test John D. Macdonald, The Green Ripper (third reading) Ross Thomas, Ah, Treachery! ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/34 "2016-05-04T04:58:44Z")
No, but Spencer Tracy died (or at least my mother informed me) when I was watching “30 seconds over Tokyo” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/35 "2016-05-04T10:14:54Z")
I was reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude” when Gabriel García Márquez died. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/36 "2016-05-04T10:37:29Z")
**Octavia Butler** - I can’t recall if I was actively reading a book, or in the process of reading her books, with one at the top of my pile. I remember really enjoying her Xenogensis series for the cool, interesting science-fiction it is. Adding the layer of Trek/Twilight deeper meaning, reflecting our real world was done in a thoughtful, non-preachy way. Being an African American Women was part, but by no means all, of what she brought to her writing. When she died, I remember really being affected and being very surprised by my reaction. It has been interesting to watch as her reputation, to my eye, appears to be growing. Good to see. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/37 "2016-05-04T11:11:15Z")
“Just hang on…I’ll throw you the lifering as soon as I finish this chapter…” ---
**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:** [May 4, 2016, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/38 "2016-05-04T12:12:53Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > So if you’re reading his book when he dies, who do you return it to? The die-brary… ah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaaaa… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/39 "2016-05-04T14:40:50Z")
Evan Hunter, a/k/a Ed McBain. I was introduced to his books at a very young age, as my mother was a huge fan. I’m sure the first adult book I read was a McBain. I was enjoying his las8est 7th Precinct book Fiddlers when I red that it would be his last, as he had died. I cried. OPEN SPOILER: The murderer in Fiddlers is killing the people who “fiddled” with his life. Obviously the title is a euphemism, because if McBain had called it FUCKED, it might be confused with a Carol Higgins Clark mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388/40 "2016-05-04T17:20:26Z")
Asimov, Crichton, Douglas Adams, James O. Rigney aka Robert Jordan, and Pratchett. I cringe every time I open a Gaiman novel… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-author-ever-died-while-you-were-reading-their-book/654388.md?page=3)