He is buried in a family grave at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France.

Bauby died just ten days later of pneumonia. The book was published in France in 1997. To make dictation more efficient, Bauby had his interlocutor read from a special alphabet which consisted of the letters ordered in accordance with their frequency in the French language. Bauby had to compose and edit the book entirely in his head, and convey it one letter at a time. Bauby also lost 60 pounds in the first 20 weeks after his stroke.ĭespite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again. This rare condition is called Locked-in Syndrome, a condition wherein the mental faculties are intact but the entire body is paralyzed. When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless he could only blink his left eyelid. On Decemat the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke.

Jean-Dominique Bauby was a well-known French journalist and author and editor of the French fashion magazine, ELLE.

The diving bell and the butterfly book