Even though these writers died too young, it cannot be ignored that they were great in their field. They all died before their 40th birthday and left behind a remarkable legacy.
1. Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane was multi-talented and tried his hand at writing short-stories, novels and poetry. He wrote books like The Red Badge of Courage and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Crane dropped out of college and did odd jobs in order to support his literary career. He died at age 29.
2. Anne Brontë
This author wrote Agnes Grey and her siblings were Charlotte and Emily Bronte. She worked with her sisters briefly and took up different jobs from 1839 through 1845. Anne contracted tuberculosis in 1848 and died at age 29.
3. Denton Welch
Denton Welch was both a novelist and a painter who wrote In Youth Is Pleasure and Maiden Voyage in 1944 an 1943 respectively. He was seriously injured in 1935 after which he found it difficult to function normally. However, he continued writing and painting till he died at age 33.
4. Raymond Radiguet
Raymond Radiguet was a poet and novelist who wrote an extraordinary book called Le Diable au corps at 17. He became Jean Cocteau’s protégé soon after. Unfortunately, the young boy got addicted to alcohol and died of typhoid at age 20.
5. John Kennedy Toole
Toole is remembered for A Confederacy of Dunces which remained unpublished while he was alive. After he committed suicide, his mother took the manuscript to Walker Percy who sent it to a publishing house almost instantly. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981- 12 years after his death.