Cancer and really painful arthritis that stemmed from the accidents/beatings sustained while writing Hells Angels nearly four decades earlier. I wouldn't call that a cowardly suicide. Now if it had been "My books don't sell, I've got writers block, the Sheriff took all my drugs..."

I'd consider Hemmingway's suicide more "cowardly", but it's still a great irony that HST went to Ketcham, Idaho to write about that early in his career.
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"When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that you set out to drain the swamp" -- HST