3 authors who became famous only after their death

11/14/2020

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History Story: 3 authors who became famous only after their death

Even created by the most talented people, literary works can take decades to get appreciated by the general public. Sadly, these 3 great authors never knew how famous they would become.

#1 Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was a famous American poet considered one of the founders of the American Poetry. She sent her poems to local newspapers but her works were constantly rejected. If not rejected, they were heavily edited. Dickinson’s style of writing was far from what was deemed the conventional style of poetry in the 19th century.

Right before her death, Emily told her sister Lavinia to destroy all her manuscripts. Lavinia didn't listen. She found more than 1500 poems and started publishing them four years after Emily's death.

#2 John Keats

John Keats is still considered one of the greatest English poets, but he never lived to know about that. For most of his life, he was extremely poor. Keats tried to become a doctor, but when he found out he wasn't able to confront hard emotional issues that came with this job, he left the medical school and decided to try writing poems.

Keats died of tuberculosis in 1821, considering himself a failure. His poems were published only 4 years after his death.

#3 Du Fu

Du Fu is the most highly respected poet in Chinese History. Throughout his life, he had a lot of health problems and wasn't successful at his attempts to become a politician. Du Fu constantly moved from job to job in pursuit of getting the Chinese Royalty’s favor.

He saw war, famine and some of the most furious rebellions of his time. Sometimes he would write poems just to get some money and support his family. Despite all of that, his poems were full of warmth and beauty. He became famous only after his death in 770.

Do you know any other authors or artists who became recognized only after their death? Would you like to learn more about any author from this list?

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What are your thoughts on this subject?

7 Comments

Robert Wasko

Another author who became famous only after his death is John Kennedy Toole, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "A Confederacy of Dunces" eleven years after his death by suicide.

lmoores

Herman Melville died an unknown pauper.

Fred Keogh

Richard Perkins, A couple of people with no sense of humour Richard. I appreciate it though. lol

ninakamwene

Interesting and educational read. Thank you for sharing, and be well.

Jim Mascair

I think a lot of famous song writers would be lost in obscurity based on their lyrics alone. At least these people rose above that level to be remembered after their death.