Copyright irishmirror
A renowned author endured his last few days in excruciating pain and met a peculiar end after accidentally swallowing a toothpick on a cruise. Sherwood Anderson, a celebrated American writer who also experienced a nervous breakdown and had four separate wives, died in 1941 in one of the most unusual literary deaths ever documented - a tragedy so strange it seems like fiction. He was 64 and on a pleasure cruise to South America with his fourth and final wife when calamity struck. While enjoying cocktails at a party, Anderson sipped a martini and, unknowingly, swallowed a tiny wooden toothpick lodged in his olive. In the ensuing days, he began to feel pain, which intensified as the ship sailed south. He was removed from the vessel in Panama and rushed to hospital - but by then, it was far too late. Doctors soon made the grim discovery. The sharp fragment of toothpick had punctured his intestines, causing a lethal infection known as peritonitis, reports the Mirror . Anderson died shortly after arriving in Panama, leaving behind one of the most intriguing endings in literary history. The author, born in Ohio in 1876, had led a life filled with drama even before his bizarre death. He'd been a successful businessman before suffering a nervous breakdown in 1912 - an incident that saw him disappear from his office and wander the streets in a daze, asking strangers who he was. That collapse ended his business career but launched his writing one. From that point onwards, Anderson immersed himself completely in fiction writing. His revolutionary 1919 collection Winesburg, Ohio portrayed small-town American existence and influenced an entire generation of authors - including Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and John Steinbeck . Anderson once quipped he possessed "a heart that always needed editing", which might account for his perpetual remarrying habits. His initial wife, Cornelia Lane, hailed from a wealthy family and they produced three children together. However, whilst he constructed his commercial empire, she allegedly grew weary of his unpredictable temperament and prolonged absences. They ultimately separated and he wed free-spirited artist Tennessee Mitchell - experiencing a "passionate, stormy and exhausting" romance which wouldn't endure. His subsequent wife Elizabeth Prall was a New York bestseller, yet Anderson's restless character resurfaced, as did whispers of dalliances with other women. His fourth and ultimate spouse Eleanor Copenhaver was 23 years his junior, but remained by his side until his passing in 1941. When medics conducted the post-mortem examination, they discovered the minuscule toothpick still lodged in his intestinal wall - a fragment of timber that had killed one of America's finest storytellers. His epitaph captures everything: "Life, not death, is the great adventure." For Sherwood Anderson, it proved chillingly accurate.
