Sans Sons —

a Song in Names Only

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December 2018 Update: Another hundred+ names added, making this the most complete, up-to-date & diligently researched list of childless people anywhere on the internet or in print.

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If you speak each name aloud or to yourself (rather than just scan) it takes you on much more of a journey. It starts in triplet, then opens up . . .

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Jesus Christ

Isaac Newton

Plato.

Mary Magdalene

Mother Teresa

Florence Nightingale;

Joan of Arc

Lawrence of Arabia

Edward the Confessor,

Betsy Ross

Rosa Parks

Bert Parks

Susan B. Anthony

Arthur C. Clarke

Ralph J. Gleason

the Dali Lama

the Pope

the Happy Hooker

Dr. Kellogg

Dr. Atkins

Dr. Seuss

Howard Hughes

Amelia Earhart

and both the Wright brothers

Oliver Wendell Holmes

John Clellon Holmes

George Bernard Shaw

Beethoven

Tchaikovsky

Mussorgsky

T.S. Elliot

W.H. Auden

H.L. Mencken

George Gershwin

George Balanchine

George Washington

Louie Armstrong

Lionel Hampton

Lillian Hellman

Helen Keller

Helen Thomas

Helen Mirren

Quentin Crisp

Colin Quinn

Robin Quivers

D.H. Lawrence

E.M. Forster

J.M. Barrie

Billie Holiday

Bettye LaVette

Bettie Page

Leonardo

Michelangelo

Vincent

Salvador Dali

David Hockney

Jackson Pollock

Lee Krasner

Mary Cassatt

Frida Kahlo

Thoreau

Chekhov

Nietzsche

Spinoza

Virgil

Keats

Poe

Pound

Proust

Rimbaud

Whitman

Tennessee Williams

Washington Irving

Robert Louis Stevenson

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Alexander Pope

William Blake

Thomas Hardy

Harlan Ellison

Henry James

James Buchanan

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Beckett

George R.R. Martin

Lewis Carroll

Landford Wilson

Noel Coward

Hart Crane

Edward Albee

Virginia Woolf

George Eliot

Isak Dineson

Jane Austen

Willa Cather

Margaret Mitchell

Alice B. Toklas

Louisa May Alcott

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Joyce Carol Oates

Katherine Anne Porter

Katherine Mansfield

Flannery O’Connor

Edith Wharton

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Eudora Welty

Emily Dickinson

Emily Bronte

Anne Bronte

Mary Oliver

Harper Lee

Amy Tan

Anaïs Nin

Maureen Dowd

Ann Patchett

Dorothy Parker

Raymond Chandler

James Baldwin

Joseph Campbell

Carlos Castaneda

Bernardo Bertolucci

Don DeLillo

Dean Koontz

Ricky Jay

Jean Genet

Jerzy Kosinski

Gene Autry

Randall Jarrell

Seymour Hersh

Delmore Schwartz

John Ashbery

Lester Bangs

Billy Collins

Gore Vidal

Edward Gorey

Allen Ginsberg

Henri Cru

Ralph Nader

Jerry Brown

Andy Warhol

Keith Haring

René Magritte

Merce Cunningham

Rudolf Nureyev

Alexander Godunov

Ahmet Ertegun

Brian Epstein

Bob Barker

Bill Blass

Sandy Koufax

Oliver Sacks

George Peabody

Amy Clampitt

Son House

Man Ray

Anita O’Day

Maria Callas

Nikola Tesla

Francis Drake

Francis Bacon

Frank O’Hara

Edwin Denby

Edwin Hubble

Vaclav Havel

Hannibal

Handel

Halston

Houdini

Baudelaire

Robespierre

Copernicus

Kant

Locke

Lenin

Raffi

Vivaldi

Versace

Armani

Odetta

Selina

Oprah

Queen Latifah

Queen Elizabeth I

Eva Perón

Eva Gabor

Elaine Kaufman

Ma Rainey

Harriet Tubman

Hattie McDaniel

Nina Totenberg

Diane Sawyer

Dian Fossey

Annie Oakley

Angela Davis

Anita Hill

Molly Ivins

Elizabeth Drew

Maggie Estep

Edith Head

Sally Ride

Terry Gross

Nina Blackwood

Emma Goldman

Martha Graham

Gertrude Stein

Gloria Steinem

Georgia O’Keefe

Alberta Hunter

Patricia Ireland

Candace Bushnell

Carson McCullers

Camille Paglia

Fran Lebowitz

Simone de Beauvoir

Berenice Abbott

Helen Gurley Brown

E. Jean Carroll

Edie Sedgwick

Edie Kerouac

Jan Kerouac

Joanne Kyger

Julia Child

Janet Reno

Angela Merkel

Liz Smith

Rachael Ray

Suze Orman

Monica Seles

Billie Jean King

Martina Navratilova

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Big Mama Thornton

Big Joe Turner

Blind Lemon Jefferson

Liza Minelli

Ginger Rogers

Imogene Coca

Coco Chanel

Mack Sennett

Billy Wilder

Thornton Wilder

Burgess Meredith

Roddy McDowell

George Reeves

Montgomery Clift

Peter Ustinov

Hal Ashby

John Sayles

John Waters

John Mahoney

Jim Nabors

Verne Troyner

Gary Coleman

Rock Hudson

River Phoenix

Raymond Burr

James Dean

Sal Mineo

Bud Cort

Tab Hunter

Max Baer

Tim Curry

Patrick Swayze

Joel Schumacher

Sam Rockwell

Rupert Everett

John Corbett

Terence Stamp

Mickey Rourke

Ralph Fiennes

Richard Chamberlain

Alan Rickman

Charles Laughton

Ian McKellen

Christopher Walken

Harry Dean Stanton

David Ogden Stiers

Katherine Hepburn

Greta Garbo

Jean Harlow

Mae West

Carole Lombard

Paulette Goddard

Claudette Colbert

Tallulah Bankhead

Elsa Lanchester

Lillian Gish

Mitzi Gaynor

Greer Garson

Vivian Vance

Marilyn Monroe

Ann-Margret

Anita Ekberg

Elke Sommer

Ava Gardner

Kim Novak

Linda Evans

Lauren Hutton

Jacqueline Bisset

Stephanie Powers

Victoria Principal

Morgan Fairchild

Cameron Diaz

Carmen Electra

Samantha Fox

Bo Derek

Ashley Judd

Jane Lynch

Delta Burke

Dawn Wells

Kim Cattrall

Eva Longoria

Marisa Tomei

Portia de Rossi

Renee Zellweger

Lara Flynn Boyle

Jennifer Aniston

Winona Ryder

Fran Drescher

Frances Farmer

Barbara Harris

Daryl Hannah

Tanya Roberts

Shelley Duvall

Valerie Perrine

Brenda Vaccaro

Bebe Neuwirth

Bernadette Peters

Stockard Channing

Shirley Booth

Julie Christie

Betty White

Barbara Feldon

Bonnie Hunt

Jennifer Tilly

Kathy Bates

Linda Blair

Carol Kane

Madeline Kahn

Marlo Thomas

Cicely Tyson

Sandra Oh

Parker Posey

Leslie Bibb

Loretta Swit

Swoozie Kurtz

Sarah Paulson

Patricia Clarkson

Kristy McNichol

Wendi McClendon-Covey

Allison Janney

Julie Kavner

Carla Gugino

Marsha Mason

Anjelica Huston

Dick Cavett

Oliver Hardy

Buck Henry

Bill Hicks

Bill Maher

Marty Allen

Jay Leno

Mitch Hedberg

Ricky Gervais

Richard Lewis

Lewis Black

Garry Shandling

Graham Chapman

Michael O’Donoghue

Gilda Radner

Brett Butler

Lily Tomlin

Minnie Pearl

Kathy Griffin

Jan Hooks

Nora Dunn

Cheri Oteri

Chelsea Handler

Janeane Garofalo

Ellen DeGeneres

Elayne Boosler

Lizz Winstead

Megan Mullally

Margaret Cho

Susie Essman

Sarah Silverman

Syd Barrett

Sid Vicious

Johnny Winter

Edgar Winter

Bill Monroe

Guy Lombardo

Barry Manilow

Glenn Gould

Aaron Copland

Cole Porter

Charley Patton

Eddie Cochran

Little Richard

Cliff Richard

Sonny Rollins

Louis Jordan

Lee Morgan

King Curtis

Sidney Bechet

Eubie Blake

Billy Strayhorn

Stephane Grappelli

Luther Vandross

Johnny Mathis

Randy Travis

Freddie Mercury

Nick Drake

Dobie Gray

Tim Hardin

Tom Lehrer

Garth Hudson

Gram Parsons

Mike Bloomfield

Rory Gallagher

Bob Welch

Lou Reed

Jim Morrison

Steve Miller

J.J. Cale

John Cage

Jeff Beck

Jeff Buckley

Joey Ramone

Johnny Ramone

Dee Dee Ramone

Tommy Ramone

Vince Welnick

Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernon

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Sonny Boy Williamson

Long John Baldry

Dave Van Ronk

Nash the Slash

Robert Smith

Robert Fripp

Ray Sawyer

Tupac Shakur

Billy Preston

Burton Cummings

Nicky Hopkins

Ellie Greenwich

Bonnie Raitt

Bessie Smith

Kate Smith

Mavis Staples

Marcia Ball

Tracy Chapman

Lucinda Williams

Laurie Anderson

Karen Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Gloria Gaynor

Amy Winehouse

Patty Loveless

Dusty Springfield

Diane Warren

Dolly Parton

Debbie Harry

Fiona Apple

Toni Tennille

Nanci Griffith

Nona Hendryx

Merry Clayton

Lisa Fischer

Stevie Nicks

Christine McVie

Joan Armatrading

Joan Jett

Janis Ian

and .. . ..

Janis Joplin.

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476 (and counting) . . . 243 men / 233 women

Last updated: August 29th, 2020

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Researched and sequenced by Brian Hassett

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We strive for accuracy.

Any corrections or additions appreciated

in the comments below

or at:

karmacoupon@gmail.com

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Criteria for exclusion / inclusion:

If someone ever sired or birthed a child, obviously they’re not included.

If someone adopted a child, they’re not included.

If someone died as a teenager too young to have really lived the possibility — say, Anne Frank or Ritchie Valens — they’re not included.

If someone died childless, but had begun procreation — say, Charlotte Bronte who died while pregnant with her first, or Buddy Holly whose wife was pregnant when his plane went down — they’re not included.

If someone never sired / birthed a child, or adopted, but married someone with children — say, George Washington or Marlo Thomas — they are included since they didn’t personally birth kids or adopt before or after marrying someone who happened to have children.

All living persons of childbearing age are excluded — with the occasional exception of someone in their later years who never had a child and made clear they do not intend to have one.

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Here’s another cool list — “Great Americans” Not Born in America

Or the eternal life-affirming — Be The Invincible Spirit You Are

Or something to internalize — Love Is

Or if you just wanna dig the greatest live musical performances ever captured on film, there’s — The Peaks from RockPeaks

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Or here’s my latest book if you wanna check that out —

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You can read tons of people’s raving reviews and reactions here or here.

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Or here’s a video “performance” version as the list stood in May 2016 . . .

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by Brian Hassett karmacoupon@gmail.com BrianHassett.com

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