Sherwood Anderson was a celebrated American writer who suffered a nervous breakdown and had four separate wives - living a life full of drama before his shocking death

A famous author spent his final few days in agony and suffered a bizarre death after accidentally swallowing a toothpick on a cruise.

Sherwood Anderson, a celebrated American writer who also suffered a nervous breakdown and had four separate wives, died in 1941 in one of the strangest literary deaths ever recorded — a tragedy so odd it sounds like fiction.

He was 64 and on a pleasure cruise to South America with his fourth and final wife when disaster struck. Enjoying cocktails at a party, Anderson sipped a martini and, without realising, swallowed a tiny wooden toothpick lodged in his olive.

Over the following days, he

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