I’ve proofread the last book by dozens of authors, including a few suicides. (And first books–I proofed the very first Wheel of Time book for TOR in the 1980s!!)
I had recently proofread part of a book by J. Anthony Lucas (huge, hence the job was divided among different freelancers) when I got a phone call from the managing editor of Knopf to let me know that Lucas had just killed himself via (pills and?) pillow smothering …
What an interesting question.
It’s happened to me once that I’m aware of.
Robert B. Parker. I was working my way back through his Jesse Stone novels when he died in early 2010.
I was rereading Infinite Jest when David Foster Wallace hung himself
I was re-reading one of Arthur C Clarke’s books when I found out he had died. Don’t remember which one but I have read and re-read his books so many times. I just re-read The Light of Other Days last weekend.