Breece D'J Pancake cut short a remarkably promising writing career when he took his own life in 1979 at the age of 26. In 1983 little, brown And Company's posthumous publication of this book electrified the literary worl...Breece D'J Pancake cut short a remarkably promising writing career when he took his own life in 1979 at the age of 26. In 1983 little, brown And Company's posthumous publication of this book electrified the literary world with a force that still resounds across two decades.