of honor than a hindrance, and, by all accounts, he could do it better than most. One of the poet’s most famous quotes sums up his feelings on the matter: “An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do.”
Thomas himself did not go gentle into that good night; he did not go gentle at all. In fact, his last days involved staying at the infamous Hotel Chelsea and doing a fair bit of drinking. The night before he died, Thomas famously returned from the pub and announced:
“I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that’s the record!”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
One of America’s greatest poets, Dickinson lived most of her life in isolation. Her few relationships survived through correspondence, and correspond she could. Dickinson was one of the most beautiful writers who ever to put pen to paper. Her best-loved lines include “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else” and “Beauty is not caused. It is.”
The end of her life was fraught with sadness, as she lost what seemed like an endless stream of friends and family, one after another, until she finally lost her own years-long battle with Bright’s disease. Her last words were as haunting as one might expect:
“I must go in, for the fog is rising.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
Wilde was, and perhaps still is, the undisputed master of witticisms. The beloved writer of plays, novels, essays, and heartbreaking children’s stories has left more memorable lines in his wake than anyone not born in Stratford-upon-Avon.
It is fitting that Wilde was as prolific on his deathbed as he was throughout his life. In his final days, Wilde left us with a bevy of lines that only he could deliver, and, while none of them were his absolute final ones, all of them are memorable. They include:
“I am dying beyond my means,” “It would really be more than the English could stand if another century began and I were still alive,” and “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.”
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)
Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright who influenced basically every playwright of the twentieth century. To give some sense of how beloved Ibsen was by some of his contemporaries, James Joyce reportedly became fluent in Norwegian just so he could read Ibsen in his original language.
Known as the father of realism, Ibsen has a dark humor that runs through much of his work, which was on full display in his final hour.
In his last days, Ibsen was bedridden after suffering from a stroke. Just before he died, an acquaintance who had come to visit asked about his health, and Ibsen’s nurse suggested that the writer was on the mend. Ibsen’s reply and last words were:
“On the contrary.”
Ian Fleming (1908–1964)
The author of all of the James Bond novels that are worth reading, Fleming’s own life reflected that of 007 more than one might expect. Fleming was an intelligence officer during World War II and was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye. He excelled at athletics, attended a tiny private school run by a former British spy, and had several broken engagements and affairs with high-profile women.
Though he was not a strong English student as a young man, Fleming eventually went on to a fairly successful career as a journalist and a wildly successful career as a novelist, writing not only the Bond novels, but also the children’s favorite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Sadly, Fleming’s heavy smoking and hard drinking led to a series of ailments which cut his life short. His last words were to paramedics who were transporting him to the hospital following a heart attack. He was politely British to the end:
“I am sorry to trouble you chaps. I don’t know how you get along so fast with the traffic on the roads these days.”
Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888)
Most will know Alcott from her Little Women, a loose recollection of her own childhood that has withstood the test of time and become a children’s favorite. Fewer know that the American-born novelist and poet was a revolutionary.
Alcott grew up learning from and speaking with intellectuals such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. She and her family helped escaped slaves navigating the Underground Railroad, even housing Frederick Douglass. As well as an active abolitionist, Louisa May was a staunch feminist, remaining independent throughout her life.
Alcott’s health deteriorated in her later years, despite her being an avid runner which went against the gender norms of the time. In the end, it took some combination of typhoid fever—which she contracted during her service in the American Civil War—mercury poisoning from the treatment, and perhaps lupus to take her down, and, even then, she thought she could beat it. Her last words:
“Is it not meningitis?”
William S. Burroughs (1914–1997)
The elder statesman of the Beat Generation, Burroughs was a writer, traveler, and famous user of narcotics. Burroughs divides critics like few others. His works range from linear stories involving heavy drug use to psychedelic narratives that some found impenetrable. While some saw Burroughs as an important counterculture voice, others fought to ban his works for obscenity. The author was as equally as contentious as his work. His well-documented drug and alcohol use sadly contributed to a William Tell stunt gone wrong which resulted in the accidental shooting of his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Burroughs’s life is that he lived to the ripe old age of eighty-four. Burroughs had a hand in many of the counterculture movements of the twentieth century, including the Beat Generation in the 1950s and Andy Warhol’s Factory in the 1960s and 1970s.
Despite years of heavy drug use (he was still an active heroin user in his eighties), in the end Burroughs died near his small house in Kansas, of a heart attack on the way to the store. His last words:
“Back in no time.”
Herman Melville (1819–1891)
Melville is best known for writing Moby Dick, a novel that often finishes the sentences “One day I mean to read…” and “I should really finish…” While the novel is a favorite bookshelf filler for today’s well-meaning fans of the classics, it was not well received until long after Melville’s death.
It took even longer for people to appreciate Billy Budd, a novel that was left unfinished after Melville’s death but was finally published more than thirty years later, in 1924. Melville’s last words suggest that at least he thought it might be something of a success, as he died referencing one of the novel’s characters:
