dehumour1-5, Exercise 2: "Valentin starved to death in 1948"

Model answer (check the sources named):

1. Who says it? Popular retellings and anecdotes, often to make a point about neglect of artists.
2. Record? Biographies and the museum describe his death in February 1948 in Planegg, near Munich. Reports say he caught a chill or pneumonia and died after a short illness, in a period of hardship after the war (check). A direct medical record of starvation is not part of the standard accounts that I know of (check).
3. When? The legend is told long after his death; the biographical accounts are closer in time but also vary.
4. Definition? "Starved" could mean a literal death from lack of food, or it could mean that he lived in poverty and poor nutrition in the postwar winter, which is a looser claim.
5. Who gains? A story of the neglected genius is attractive to writers and to audiences.
6. What would change my mind? A reliable medical or contemporary source stating the cause of death as starvation.

Careful sentence: "Valentin died in February 1948, in the hard postwar period and in poor circumstances; the claim that he starved to death is a legend that biographies do not support, though his hardship is documented."