GNU Sir Terry Pratchett

Sir Terry Pratchett was knighted 15 years ago, just around when imgur first kicked off! And then six years later, he passed from this world into the black desert...

One of the stipulations of his will was that his hard drive was to be taken out of his computer and crushed beneath a steamroller. We'll never know what he stories he was getting ready to tell us.

BUT! On the bright side, there are still some stories from him you haven't yet heard! A fan of Sir Pratchett asked a librarian for tracking down the rest of a newspaper serial of his, and that kicked off a grand search through the archives of multiple publications. What came up were these tales told under one of Pratchett's pseudonyms, Patrick Kearns! These stories predate Discworld, but here you can see the seeds that grew into that fantastic universe.

Gaiman's foreword is quite a doozy:

"Terry Pratchett being now these eight years dead, I have watched at first hand as the living person I knew has become a legend of sorts. Terry is, in the popular mind, as far as I can tell, a beaming, gentle, wise soul of twinkling eye and noble mien, a sensible old comforter, able to be enlisted by people of widely differing beliefs into their camps because of course their Terry would have agreed with them, they love his books, don't they?

....(whoever you are reading this, whatever it is you believe, I promise that the real Terry held at least one opinion that would have made you curl your toes and go 'Oh, come on, you don't really think that!')"

There's quite a bit more to it, but it's best if you read it yourself.