Famous College Dropouts


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Famous College Dropouts

Famous College Dropouts

Emily Dickinson, died May 15, 1886, Age 55

Dickinson could be said to have died of a broken heart. Her beloved father died in 1874, and thus began a long list of deaths in her life that led her to write, “The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my Heart from one, another has come.” In 1882, Charles Wadsworth, her “Shepherd from ‘Little Girl’ hood,” died, quickly followed by the death of her mother in November of that year. In 1883 her brother Austin’s son, her favorite nephew, died of Typhoid fever.

A death of sorts, Austin then distanced himself from his family. Her late-in-life romance, Otis Phillips Lord, died in 1884, and shortly after, Dickinson’s health began to decline. She died after two years of increasingly poor health. The depressed Dickinson was posthumously diagnosed with Bright’s Disease, though the accuracy of this diagnosis is still in question.

Tennessee Williams, died February 25, 1983, Age 71

Williams did not die a young man, but his death was nonetheless tragic. As was his habit, Williams placed the cap of his eye drops in his mouth before tossing his head back to administer the eye drops. On the night he died, the bottle cap became lodged in his throat, and alone in his hotel room in New York, there was no one to come to his aid. It is believed that alcohol and prescriptions drugs may have contributed to his death by having weakened his gag reflex.