 J. Gordon Holt was as well known for his smoking as he was for his passionate writing, and smoked two-and-a-half packs a day starting when he was seventeen.He was diagnosed with tonsil cancer shortly after his wife's death in 1990, and had a successful surgery shortly thereafter, although he continued to smoke believing that the cancer was likely to kill him anyway.Ten years later, Holt was diagnosed with emphysema.