At his “Weekend Stubble” blog for The Collins Library, author Paul Collins files this item about “an odd bit of authorial lore”: the fact that “the first automotive fatality was a bestselling author.” Noting coverage from various sources —including a local newspaper report, “Appalling Accident: Sudden Death of the Hon. Mrs. Ward,” — Collins explains that Irish writer Mary Ward was killed on 31 August 1869 when she was thrown from a steam-driven car. He notes that “her self-published Sketches With The Microscope became a Victorian bestseller when it was reissued under the title A World of Wonders Revealed By The Microscope.”