One thinks of Henry James on his deathbed, the writing hand still moving involuntarily.
B5 ARTS & IDEAS B7-18 Battling Over a Comma A complicated dispute has arisen among researchers, Graham Greene's literary estate and a library over just what the author meant in a written deathbed statement.
On his deathbed he wrote the heroic Pietist hymn "Udrust dig, helt fra Golgotha" ("Gird Thyself, Hero of Golgotha").
Kafka who on his deathbed could write a sentence like this: "Put your hand on my forehead a moment to give me courage". And so, inevitably, to Victor Willing.
Lesser known but no less fantastic is Le Tango Funèbre, another macabre deathbed chanson written with pianist Gérard Jouannest, where the dying subject regards the excitement his impending passing is generating among his prospective heirs and assigns.
If I were to lie on my deathbed having written half a dozen decent poems that I thought people might read after my death, then I would think that I hadn't lived in vain". This month Motion celebrates both his 60th birthday and the publication of The Custom House (Faber), his first collection of poetry written entirely since he stopped being poet laureate in 2009.
One security source referred to the "Thomas a Becket" principle of distancing oneself from a criminal act - referring to the comment made by King Henry II to his knights: "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?" From beyond the grave, in his deathbed statement, written and signed four days ago when he knew he was dying, Mr Litvinenko, made his position clear.
"Alison King as Carla seemed to lose the thread at one point, but it's hard to be sure in the circumstances, and William Roache was a bit indistinct at times, but then he was standing over his son's deathbed," he wrote.
On his deathbed he wrote a letter to Philip II asking for the castellany of Antwerp for his son Alonso and a company of lances for his niece Cristóbal, but both requests were denied.
From his deathbed, Howard wrote the lyrics for Beauty and the Beast's songs three of them would be nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards, and the movie's title song would win the Oscar.
