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A look into the lives of several renown writers, who never lived to see the fruits of their labours.

There are many writers who write and are never realised. There are also those few, however, who write and lead a poor and relatively unknown life, only to dazzle the world with a brilliance that is recognised after they have gone.

John Keats

One such writer was John Keats, who was born in October of 1795. Keats initially wrote poetry with little success, receiving virtually no income for his efforts. besides gaining early recognition in the Examiner, he continued to struggle, receiving harsh criticism, which his friends say only added to his torture and state of depression. Writers such as Byron branded him an over sensitive weakling.

Love letters Keats' wrote to Fanny Brown reveal he was a brilliant and unselfish man, who, despite his best efforts to master himself, became prey to uncontrollable fits of intense passion.

The years 1818-1821 saw the height of Keats' poems, where he wrote the odes series, such as 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'. Two years later he died, aged 25, in Oct 1921, believing himself a failure. Eight years after his death, rumours of Keats' work were spread by an enthusiastic bunch of Cambridge students. It wasn't until the 1890's, however, that he became recognised as one of the greatest romantic poets that ever lived.

Franz Kafka

Born in 1883, Franz Kafka studied law at university under the hopeful eye of his father, although his passion lay with literature. During university he wrote stories which were published in magazines and small books, beginning with 'Meditation' in 1912.

Kafka's father hoped him to excel in the conventional sense, and he imposed these thoughts in a rather tyrannical fashion. Kafka managed to escape into his literature, however his father's behaviour repressed him, adding to his plague of health problems. In 1917 he experienced a haemorrhage, which proved tubercular.

In 1923, Kafka's health declined rapidly, leading to his death. His works were published in seven small books throughout his life, including 'The Metamorphosis', although he left several unfinished novels and a mass of notes and diaries. His most renown works didn't achieve notoriety until after his death and remained unfinished. These included The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and America (1927).

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst in 1839, in the US. Daniel Fiske, a teacher at the Amherst Academy, described her as an excellent scholar “whose compostions were strikingly original”.

Over the couse of her life, Emily wrote hundreds of poems, only to hide them in her room. She posessed a unique style of writing, frequently using hyphons in her verses, as well as unconventional capitalisation in poems that consisted of short lines, often with no titles.

It was from 1861 to 1865 that the poems of Emily Dickinson really began to shine. However, she would despair at not having what she thought were any good listeners. In a letter to her friends, she wrote "wherefore sing since nobody hears?"

It wasn't until after her death, in 1886, that her sister Lavina discovered the breadth of her work, and It wasn't until the mid 20th century that she was recognised as one of America's great poets.

Edgar Allan Poe

An American writer born in 1809, Edgar Allan Poe started his career writing reviews. Mr J.K Paulding called his review of Drake and Halleck - “one the finest specimens of criticism ever published in this country”.

From 1844 - 1846 Poe lived in New York where he was to gain some renown, particularly for his story 'Raven', arguably his most famous work.

In 1949, Poe was to die in mysterious circumstances, as he was found delirious, wearing someone else's clothes and yelling out the name Reynolds. No one knows why this was so, and the cause of his death remains certain.

The Edgar Allan Poe works consisted of poems, articles and short stories. His most renown works were in the style of mystery macabre detective thrillers, which were highly original. It wasn't until some time after his death, however, that he gained renown among the literary greats.

"When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason" - Ernest Hemingway.



Sources:

Colvin, Sidney. 2009. John Keats His Life and Poetry His Friends Critics and After Fame. BiblioBazaar.

Gill, William Fearing. 2009. The Life of Edgar Allen Poe. BiblioBazaar.

Hemingway, Ernest. 2004. A Moveable Feast. Arrow Books: London.

Meltzer, Milton. 2005. Emily Dickons: A Biography. Twenty-First Century Books: Minneapolis.

Robertson, Ritchie. 2004. Kafka: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press: New York.