#10 – Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914?] American Author: Disappeared in Mexico while reporting on Pancho Villa’s rebellion. May have been murdered by bandits.
#09 – Leo Tolstoy [1828-1910] Russian Author: Gave away entire fortune, froze to death in a railroad station on a cold winter night.
#08 – Virginia Woolf [1882-1941] British Author & Critic: Filled pockets with stones and drowned self in the River Ouse.
#07 – Euripides [480-406 B.C.] Greek Playwright: Mauled by a pack of wild dogs owned by Archelaus, the King of Macedonia, according to legend.
#06 – Sherwood Anderson [1876-1941] American Author: Complications of peritonitis in Colon, Panama, after ingesting a toothpick along with a hors d’oeuvre at a cocktail party.
#05 – Hart Crane [1899-1932] American Poet: While en route to New York aboard the S.S. Orizaba, leapt into the Caribbean Sea; reputedly said “Good-bye everybody.”
#04 – Edgar Allan Poe [1809-1849] American Author: Died of “acute congestion of the brain” several days after he was discovered lying unconscious in a Baltimore street, wearing someone else’s tattered clothes.
#03 – Sergei Esenin [1895-1925] Russian Poet: Cut wrists, wrote a final poem in own blood (called “Do svidania drug moi” or “Goodbye my friend”) and hanged self in a hotel room in Leningrad.
#02 – John Berryman [1914-1972] American Poet: Jumped from a bridge over the Mississippi River; reputedly waved at passersby on way down.
#01 – Yukio Mishima [1925-1970] Japanese Author: Committed seppuku (hara-kiri) and was beheaded during failed attempt to overtake a Japanese garrison.
