Jean-Dominique Bauby

(1952 - 1997)

On December 8, 1995 Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor in chief of the French magazine Elle, suffered a paralyzing stroke that led to the rare condition known as locked-in syndrome. Bauby could move only his left eyelid, which he later relied upon to dictate the entirety of his memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Two days after it was published on March 7, 1997, he died at the age of forty-four.