British · 1948–2015
Terry Pratchett sold his first story at thirteen, became a journalist, and then wrote forty-one Discworld novels that used comic fantasy to examine everything from religion to economics to death itself. He sold over 85 million books, was knighted for services to literature, and continued writing after his Alzheimer's diagnosis in 2007 with the help of assistants. His co-authorship of Good Omens with Neil Gaiman produced a novel that combined Pratchett's satirical warmth with Gaiman's mythological imagination. He died in 2015, and his unfinished hard drive was flattened by a steamroller per his wishes.