I just read this brilliant entry on artistic mortality by Ed Gorman.

As Ernest Hemingway once noted, take any story far enough and it ends in death. That's true not only of our physical lives but also of many of our careers--and by "ours" I mean creative people in the broadest use of that word--actors, painters, dancers, editors, musicians, composers, writers.

I know there are a lot of sf readers here Ed talks mostly about John Brunner's career.