MARIE ANTOINETTE, 21, Queen of France
1777
THOMAS JEFFERSON, 45, U.S. Ambassador to France
SALLY HEMINGS, 16, slave, half-sister to Jefferson’s dead wife
1788
NAPOLÉON BONAPARTE, 26, general in command of the French
“Army of Italy”
JOSÉPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS, 33, his wife
FORTUNÉ, 4, her dog
1796
BENJAMIN, 23, field slave
HANNAH, 17, house slave
1855
JOHN WILKES BOOTH, 24, actor
CATHERINE WINSLOW, 26, actress
1863
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 54, President of the United States
MARY TODD LINCOLN, 44, First Lady
1863
MARTHA JANE “CALAMITY JANE” CANARY, 24, frontierswoman
JAMES BUTLER “WILD BILL” HICKOK, 39, gambler and gunfighter
1876
WALT WHITMAN, 64, poet
OSCAR WILDE, 28, poet and playwright
1883
SIGMUND FREUD, 42, psychiatrist
MINNA BERNAYS, 33, his sister-in-law
1898
LIZZIE ANDREW BORDEN, 44, acquitted murderer
NANCE O’NEIL, 30, actress
1904
JAMES JOYCE, 24, writer
NORA BARNACLE, 22, his wife
1906
PABLO PICASSO, 24, artist
1906
GERTRUDE STEIN, 36, writer
ALICE B. TOKLAS, 33, her companion
1910
VICTOR DE SATODE PEÑASCO Y CASTELLANA, 18, of independent
means from Madrid
MARIA JOSEFA PEREDEZE SOTO Y VALLEJO
PEÑASCO Y CASTELLANA, 17, his newly wed wife
1912
MATA HARI, 37, exotic dancer and courtesan
JACK JOHNSON, 35, world heavyweight boxing champion
1913
GEORGE HERMAN “BABE” RUTH, 21, baseball player
JOSEPHINE RUGGLES, 24, prostitute
1916
ERNEST HEMINGWAY, 23, writer
CÉLINE GAUTHIER, 34, prostitute
1922
JOSEPHINE BAKER, 19, dancer
GEORGES SIMENON, 22, writer
1926
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, 24, recent graduate in philosophy from
the École Normale Supérieure
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, 21, recent graduate in philosophy
from the Sorbonne
1929
MILTON BERLE, 23, comedian
AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON, 40, evangelist
1930
CLYDE BARROW, 25, outlaw
BONNIE PARKER, 23, outlaw
1934
ADOLF HITLER, 46, Reichskanzler and Führer
INGA ARVAD, 22, journalist
INGA ARVAD, 29, journalist
JOHN F. KENNEDY, 24, ensign, U.S. Navy Intelligence
1942
J. EDGAR HOOVER, 53, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
CLYDE TOLSON, 48, Associate Director
1946
ALBERT EINSTEIN, 66, physicist
MARGARITA KONENKOVA, 51, Soviet spy
1945
RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, 40, Vice President of the United States
THELMA CATHERINE “PAT” NIXON, 41, his wife
1953
JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, 44, U.S. Senator
JEAN KERR MCCARTHY, 29, his wife
1953
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, 36, Attorney General of the United States
MARILYN MONROE, 35, actress
1962
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, 24, law student
HILLARY DIANE RODHAM, 23, law student
1971
ELVIS PRESLEY, 42, singer
HOLLY SINGLETON, 20, admirer
1977
DIANA, 25, Princess of Wales
CHARLES PHILIP ARTHUR GEORGE, 37, Prince of Wales and Earl
of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick and Baron
of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, heir
apparent to the British throne
1986
ROOSTER, 2, stud
CHICKEN, 1, roaster
2000
KEVIN SMITH, 32, advertising copywriter
2001
GEORGE W. BUSH, 57, President of the United States
LAURA BUSH, 57, First Lady
2004
ROBERT OLEN BUTLER, 62, writer
MISS X, 36, hotel desk clerk
2007
KEVIN SMITH, 38, advertising executive
JULIA HANSON, 36, art gallery manager
2007
SANTA CLAUS, 471, philanthropist
INGEBIRGITTA, 826, elf
2008
First published in the UK in 2015
by No Exit Press, an imprint of Oldcastle Books
P O Box 394,
Harpenden, AL5 1XJ, UK
noexit.co.uk
Some of the stories in this book originally appeared in Playboy, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Weber, New Letters, Vestal Review, and on Nerve.com and NarrativeMagazine.com.
All rights reserved
© Robert Olen Butler, 2015
The right of Robert Olen Butler to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN
978–1–84344–753-5 (epub)
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