Honore de Balzac (he added the "de", he was not a noble), was born in 1800 and died in 1850 of caffeine poisoning.
Without the aid of a computer, or even a typewriter, he wrote over 100 novels, (The Human Comedy) between midnight and 6 AM during the last 20 years of his life, after trying to be a dramatist (and failing miserably). He would drink cup after cup of thick Turkish coffee and write furiously on sheets of blue paper by candlelight, always only a few steps ahead of his creditors (he was a shopaholic).
The tapestry of character and detail of environment he wove are unparalleled among the novelists of his time, or any other. It could be argued that he was the French Dickens. He, however, never married and left no progeny. His most famous works include Pere Goriot, Eugenie Grandet and Cousin Bette, from which a mediocre movie was recently made.