Writers and poets
Agha Ahmad Ali (1839-1873), Bengali academic, scholar of Persian and Urdu poet, died of tuberculosis on June 1873 Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet, died from tuberculosis Manuel Bandeira, Brazilian poet, had tuberculosis in 1904 and expressed the effects of the disease in his life in many of his poems Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet, died on 22 December 1870 from tuberculosis Vissarion Belinsky, Russian literary critic Edward Bellamy (1850–1898), fiction writer remembered for his book Looking Backward, died from tuberculosis Sukanta Bhattacharya, Bengali poet and playwright Jonas Biliūnas Rachel Bluwstein Anne and Emily Brontë and other members of the Brontë family of writers, poets and painters were struck by tuberculosis. Anne, their brother Branwell, and Emily all died of it within two years of each other. Charlotte Brontë's death in 1855 was stated at the time as having been due to tuberculosis, but there is some controversy over this today. Clarissa Brooks, poet, died of tuberculosis in 1927 Charles Brockden Brown Charles Farrar Browne Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet, died of tuberculosis in 1861 Jean de Brunhoff Charles Bukowski (1920–1994), American author and poet, contracted tuberculosis in 1988; he recovered, losing 60 lbs. He died of leukemia. Robert Burns Albert Camus, French writer, playwright, activist, and absurdist philosopher, suffered from tuberculosis. He was forced to drop out of school (University of Algiers) due to severe attacks of tuberculosis. However, his death was caused by a car accident. Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 84 BC – ca. 54 BC), Roman poet Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician; died from tuberculosis Tristan Corbière Stephen Crane Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) René Daumal Nikolay Dobrolyubov Laura Don (1852–1886), actress-manager, playwright and artist Paul Laurence Dunbar Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861–1922), Canadian author and journalist Paul Éluard Friedrich Robert Faehlmann Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist Maxim Gorky Guido Gozzano (1883-1916), Italian poet Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961), American author and creator of the "hard boiled" detective novel (notably, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon), contracted tuberculosis during World War I Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet and writer Jaroslav Hašek Alice Corbin Henderson (1881–1949), American poet, author, and poetry editor Robert A. Heinlein, American author William Ernest Henley (1849–1903), English poet, writier, critic, and editor Mary Eliza Herbert (1829–1872), Canadian publisher and poet Sarah Herbert (1824–1846), Irish-Nova Scotian author, publisher, and educator Miguel Hernandez Washington Irving Takuboku Ishikawa Panait Istrati Helen Hunt Jackson Alfred Jarry Samuel Johnson Franz Kafka (1883–1924), German-language novelist best known for his novel The Trial, died from tuberculosis Uuno Kailas, Finnish composer Andreas Karkavitsas, Greek writer John Keats (1795–1821), English Romantic poet; he and his brother Tom were taken by tuberculosis Dragotin Kette Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Danish philosopher Charles Kingsley Kostas Krystallis, Greek poet Vincas Kudirka (1858–1899), Lithuanian poet and physician; died from tuberculosis Jules Laforgue (1860–1887), French-Uruguayan poet Sidney Lanier D. H. Lawrence Janet Lewis Lu Xun Betty MacDonald Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand writer, died from tuberculosis aged 34 William Somerset Maugham Guy de Maupassant Sara Haardt Mencken Migjeni, Albanian poet Molière Christian Morgenstern, German writer Josip Murn Aleksandrov Novalis, German author and philosopher Jessie Fremont O'Donnell (1860–1897), writer Eugene O'Neill George Orwell (1903–1950), British author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and Homage to Catalonia, first suffered tuberculosis in the early 1930s and died from it in 1950, at the age of 46. Nineteen Eighty-Four was written during his final illness.