The Very Concise Suicide Note by Kodak Founder George Eastman: “My Work is Done. Why Wait?” (1932)

in History, Technology | August 19th, 2013 8 Comments

eastman suicide

In 1932 George East­man, the 77 year old entre­pre­neur who estab­lished the East­man Kodak Com­pa­ny, pop­u­lar­ized the use of roll film, and brought pho­tog­ra­phy to the main­stream, found him­self in declin­ing health. Suf­fer­ing from lum­bar spinal steno­sis, a nar­row­ing of the spinal canal that can lead to con­sid­er­able back pain and dif­fi­cul­ty walk­ing, East­man was depressed and increas­ing­ly dis­abled. On March 14th, he com­mit­ted sui­cide by fir­ing a sin­gle gun­shot through his heart. An act as brief, and to the point, as the note he left behind. It read:

To my friends

My work is done

Why wait?

GE

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

How Film Was Made: A Kodak Nos­tal­gia Moment

Ear­ly Exper­i­ments in Col­or Film (1895–1935)

Anne Sex­ton, Con­fes­sion­al Poet, Reads “Want­i­ng to Die” in Omi­nous 1966 Video


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