Famous Last Words, Fond Farewells, Deathbed Diatribes, and Exclamations Upon Expiration

the long version

A collection of the notable last recorded words of the dying, *Famous Last Words* is, unexpectedly, bursting with life, hope, wisdom, and often laughter. Here are writers, philosophers, athletes, gangsters, kings, queens, movie stars, and politicians, in all sorts of moods and states of preparedness. Some merely want to say goodbye to loved ones, others want to create a legacy. And some are caught completely off guard, like Civil War general John Sedgwick, answering his troops' urgings to take cover: They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--.