Sylvia Plath
It’s not just that Plath became famous after her death, she partially became famous because of her death. Plath committed suicide in 1963. Though she’d been published before then, the publication of “Ariel” is what really caused her rise to fame. The poems in that work were dark, autobiographical and described mental illness. Her tragic death made the work feel deeply poignant, and Plath rose to popularity.