November first is National Authors' Day, and it is also the start of a two-day religious observance remembering the dead. Today we're coupling the two events with a look at some now-dead American authors and their supposed last words.

We begin with a caution: a great many of these so-called last words are apocryphal and we cannot attest to their accuracy.

Stephen Crane, who was born on this date in 1871 and who died less than 29 years later, is still admired for his ability to portray the tension between hope and despair. Crane is remembered for these final words:

When you come to the hedge that we must all go over, it isn't so bad. You feel sleepy, you don't care. Just a little dreamy anxiety, which world you're really in, that's all.
Ten years later to the day, on June 5, 1910, O. Henry (born William Sydney Porter) died. The writer renowned for his surprise endings ended his days with these last few words: "Turn up the lights. I don't want to go home in the dark."
Our final American author was celebrated for his experimental novels evoking a nightmarish, often funny world. Junkie, homosexual, and accidental wife-killer, William S. Burroughs died at 83 in August of 1997. His final words? "Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is . . . love."