This post was co-authored and co-researched by Nicholas Parker and Electronic Resources Librarian Rhonda Evans.

June 6th is the birthday of Alexander Pushkin, one of the most famous literary figures in all of Russia – arguably more popular and revered in his homeland than even Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. Highly celebrated in his lifetime, Pushkin wrote plays, poetry, and short stories, but he is best known for his epic poem Evgeny Onegin, which tells the story of a man who kills his best friend in a duel (excerpts are available online here). Little did Pushkin know that just five years after he finished this acclaimed verse novel, he would meet the same demise as his title character’s victim: felled in a duel, in an ill-advised attempt to defend his honor. He was 37 years old.

Intrigued by Pushkin’s story, we did some digging into our collections and pulled more stories of writers who fought in, died in, or narrowly avoided duels. Here are six fascinating tales of literary “affairs of honor:”

Alexander Pushkin

Even though he was praised throughout Russia, in the latter years of Pushkin’s life, complicated court politics and financial difficulties caused him to struggle to provide for his wife, Natalia, and her two sisters. To make matters worse, rumors began to spread that Natalia was having an affair with one Baron Georges d’Anthes-Heeckeren, a member of the upper crust of Russian society. D’Anthes claimed that he loved Natalia’s sister, and married her in 1837, but rumors persisted that with D’Anthes’ closer access to the Pushkin family, he was pursuing Natalia even more strongly. The last straw for Pushkin came when he learned that one of his children caught the pair alone together; Pushkin challenged d’Anthes to a duel. Both men were wounded, but Pushkin’s injury was fatal, and he died two days later.

Miguel de Cervantes

Details about the life of the author of Don Quixote are sketchy, but historians do know that the young Miguel de Cervantes was an adventurous man who longed to travel, particularly to Italy, the primary destination for Europeans interested in pursuing learning, knowledge, and culture at the time. In 1569, he did leave his native Spain for Italy, but it’s possible that he was motivated less by his love of travel than by trouble with the law. According to government records, there was a warrant out for Miguel de Cervantes’ arrest for wounding a man named Antonio de Sigura; the warrant called for his “right hand to be cut off and... to be in exile from Madrid for ten years.” Whether his exile was self-imposed or court-ordered, Cervantes did stay out of Spain, and mostly out of trouble, for over a decade before he returned.

Leo Tolstoy & Ivan Turgenev

Somehow, in between writing War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and several other acclaimed works of Russian prose, Leo Tolstoy managed to find time to get into it with fellow Russian author Ivan Turgenev, author of Fathers and Sons, after he insulted Turgenev for having an illegitimate child with one of his own serfs. However, after some apologies (and further perceived slights), Turgenev and Tolstoy settled their differences without a duel, sparing fans of Russian literature from what would have been an undoubtedly disastrous loss.

Ben Jonson

The playwright Ben Jonson was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, and is considered second only to the Bard in his influence on English theatre during that time. In 1597, Jonson dueled actor Gabriel Spenser – who had performed in Jonson’s play, The Isle of Dogs – and killed him. Jonson was imprisoned for the murder, but released on benefit of clergy, a practice of English law that allowed the accused to gain leniency if they could recite a Bible verse in Latin. Jonson avoided hanging and was released from prison; his punishment was a branding and the forfeiture of his property.

Marcel Proust

The French writer of In Search of Lost Time might have been killed before he could even begin the landmark work, in a duel with poet and novelist Jean Lorrain in 1897. Lorrain publicly accused Marcel Proust of being in a relationship with writer Lucien Daudet; though Proust was gay, he was not open about his sexuality, and it is possible that Proust and Daudet were not lovers – though they were at least close friends. Proust challenged Lorrain to a duel. Lorrain, who himself was gay, accepted, and the two faced off; neither man was hurt.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain never fought in a duel – but he does have a humorous story about managing to avoid one. When he was promoted to editor-in-chief of a small Virginia City newspaper, The Daily Enterprise, Twain insulted an editor of a rival paper, named Mr. Lord. Twain recalled, "he flew up at some little trifle or other that I said about him--I do not remember now what it was. I suppose I called him a thief, or a body-snatcher, or an idiot, or something like that." Mr. Lord responded in kind, and Twain challenged him to a duel, though Twain “hoped he would not accept." But Mr. Lord did accept, and Twain immediately regretted his decision, especially when his friend, Steve Gills, attempted to teach him how to shoot, and watched as Mark Twain repeatedly failed to hit an entire barn door.  

But who knew that a little sparrow would save the day, and possibly the future of American literature. As the small bird landed on a bush Mr. Gills aimed his pistol at it and shot its head off. Mr. Lord, who was practicing his shooting nearby, driven by curiosity, came over and the conversation went like this:

Lord: "That was a splendid shot. How far off was it?"

Gills: "Oh, no great distance. About thirty paces."

Lord: "Thirty paces! Heavens alive, who did it?"

Gills: "My man--Twain!"

Lord: "The mischief he did! Can he do that often?"

Gills: "Well--yes. He can do it about--well--about four times out of five."

A half hour later Lord pulled out of the duel. Mark Twain may not have lost his life, but just a week after becoming editor-in chief of The Daily  Enterprise, he lost his job.

Twain has two more humorous quotations on the practice of dueling:

"Duelling was all the fashion among the upper classes in that country, and very few gentlemen would throw away an opportunity of fighting one. To kill a person in a duel caused a man to be even more looked up to than to kill two men in the ordinary way."

"I think it is a bad immoral thing. I think it is everyman's duty to do everything he can to discourage duelling...If a man were to challenge me now...I would go to that man, and take him by the hand, and lead him to a quiet, retired room--and kill him."

More Resources

This blog post was researched entirely using NYPL's electronic resources. If you are interested in researching the lives of your favorite writers explore  Literature Resource Center, Artemis Literary Sources, or Dictionary of Literary Biography.

If you’re interested in research on dueling, take a look at these two dueling manuals from the 19th century, The Code of Honor, or, Rules for the Government of Principals and Seconds in Duelling. or An Essay on the Practice of Duelling, as it Exists in Modern Society: Occasioned by the Late Lamentable Occurence Near Philadelphia.  Accessible through Sabin American Digital Archive (1500-1926).

With more than 500 online research options available, many accessible from home with a library card, you can go beyond your search engine and dig deeper online with NYPL.

Works Cited

Gutsche, George J. "Alexander Pushkin." Russian Literature in the Age of Pushkin and Gogol: Poetry and Drama, edited by Christine Rydel, Gale, 1999. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 205. Literature Resource Center, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1200008495&asid=cb972df346f30c31953877ce838cf445. Accessed 1 June 2017.

Lathrop, Thomas A. "Don Quixote and its errant author." New England Review, vol. 31, no. 4, 2010, p. 8+. Literature Resource Center, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA247881480&it=r&asid=b9338218dda677fae74d26d19f908cd5. Accessed 2 June 2017.

Durán, Manuel. "Cervantes’ Harassed and Vagabond Life." Cervantes, Twayne Publishers, 1974, pp. 21-30. Twayne's World Authors Series 329. Gale Virtual Reference Library, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CCX1389400011&it=r&asid=fa154221df114fe16fa864cdae4694d5. Accessed 2 June 2017.

Schuyler, Eugene. "The quarrels between Tolstoy and Turgenev." New England Review, vol. 33, no. 2, 2012, p. 187+. Literature Resource Center, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA301648923&it=r&asid=aee6e72baabf50b0b0453a932e7dcdb0. Accessed 2 June 2017.

Evans, Robert C. "Ben Jonson (11 June 1572?-August 1637)." Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets: First Series, edited by M. Thomas Hester, vol. 121, Gale, 1992, pp. 186-212. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 121. Dictionary of Literary Biography Main Series, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=DLBC&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CSRBKPQ809000782&it=r. Accessed 2 June 2017.

Donovan, Kevin J. "Ben Jonson (11 June 1572?-6 August 1637)." Elizabethan Dramatists, edited by Fredson Bowers, vol. 62, Gale, 1987, pp. 136-182. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 62. Dictionary of Literary Biography Main Series, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=DLBC&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CKIMVWW494741962&it=r. Accessed 2 June 2017.

"Becoming a 'Man of Letters'." Marcel Proust: A Documentary Volume, edited by William C. Carter, vol. 371, Gale, 2013, pp. 24-94. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 371. Dictionary of Literary Biography Main Series, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=DLBC&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CTETNGC971269223&it=r. Accessed 2 June 2017.

Alden, Douglas W. "Marcel Proust: Overview." Gay & Lesbian Literature, vol. 1, Gale, 1994. Literature Resource Center, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH1420006608&it=r&asid=f5da9df7d247a0b81b881a9d6e3112b1. Accessed 2 June 2017.

Alden, Douglas W. “Marcel Proust's Duel.” Modern Language Notes, vol. 53, no. 2, 1938, pp. 104–106. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2912041.

"Mark Twain." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center, i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=nypl&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1000018669&asid=728389c8e404c60ddb9f19c209673b46. Accessed 1 June 2017.

"Mark Twain Fights a Duel." San Francisco Chronicle (1869-Current File): 6. Jan 11 1907. ProQuest. Web. 1 June 2017  .

Twain, Mark. "HOW I ESCAPED BEING KILLED IN A DUEL." Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922): 3. Dec 25 1872. ProQuest. Web. 1 June 2017  .