Final Chapters: How Famous Authors Died

“Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.” –William Saroyan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

Famous authors, like everybody else, know that one day they will die. Final Chapters tells the fascinating stories of more than one hundred writers’ encounters with death—and their attitudes toward the Grim Reaper: fear, uncertainty, or acceptance.

Francis Bacon wrote, “It is as natural to die as to be born,” while Socrates told the judges who condemned...