page_title: List of people with kidney stones
section_title: Authors
hierarchical_section_title: List of people with kidney stones / Authors
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Michel de Montaigne.
context_page_description: There are a number of documented cases of historical figures and distinguished members of society who had kidney stones. This condition is caused by nephrolithiasis, which are more commonly known as kidney stones, or urolithiasis, where the stone forms in the urinary system. These are crystal deposits that can accrete in the urinary system when certain chemical substances become concentrated in the urine. Among the symptoms associated with nephrolithiasis are intense colicky pain, nausea, fever, chills, and the reduction or blockage of urine flow. Historically, the condition of having a kidney or bladder stone was referred to as "the stone" or "the gravel".
  In certain cases, kidney stone formation played a pivotal role in history. Most notably, some members of the royalty and military leaders became debilitated at important moments, such as Napoleon III of France during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and Athenian commander Nicias in the disastrous Sicilian Expedition of 415-413 BC.
context_section_description: The post-mortem examination of noted diarist Samuel Pepys revealed, "a nest of no less than seven stones" in his left kidney. These weighed a total of 4.5 ounces. When he was younger, Pepys had undergone bladder surgery, pre-anesthesia, for removal of a large stone. He carried this stone with him to try to persuade fellow sufferers to endure the painful surgery.
  Michel de Montaigne, the French Renaissance writer who popularized the essay, began to suffer from chronic kidney stones in 1578. His father had died from kidney stones.
  Mary Ann Evans wrote under the male pen name of George Eliot. She had suffered from various health problems for all of her life, and starting in February 1874 she endured a series of kidney stone attacks that lasted until her death.
  While visiting Italy, the author Llewelyn Powys (who lived from 1884 to 1939) began coughing up blood because of his tuberculosis and also suffered from a kidney stone. After he returned home to Dorset, he passed the stone with excruciating pain. He had to take medication for the remainder of his life to avoid forming another stone.
  American author Jack London used morphine to alleviate the pain of kidney stones. He most likely died at the age of forty from kidney failure and possibly a toxic dose of pain reliever.
  At the end of her life in 1980, author Ethel Wilson was hospitalized and suffering from recurrent small strokes. The day before she died, she was in physical distress from passing a kidney stone. A doctor injected her with medication to ease the pain.
  Author Isaac Asimov suffered from kidney stones, and wrote about how his pain was treated with morphine, saying that he feared becoming addicted to morphine if he ever needed it again. During the 1980s, his problem with kidney stones developed into kidney disease, which resulted in multiple hospitalizations.
  In his book A Year at the Movies, Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer and performer Kevin Murphy describes his ordeal with a kidney stone: "Being gut-stabbed with a dirty spoon in a prison cafeteria is less painful."
  Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, wrote about his experience with passing a kidney stone in his nonfiction book Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories.
  Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Art Buchwald suffered from a kidney stone late in his life.
  During a book tour, best selling author David Sedaris started passing a kidney stone. He completed several lectures while on pain medication.
caption: Michel de Montaigne wrote of his condition that, "I am at grips with the worst of all maladies, the most sudden, the most painful, the most mortal and the most irremediable. I have already experienced five or six very long and painful bouts of it."[6]
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