Top 5 Literary Suicides - Suicide has claimed the lives of many writers over the years. From Ernest Hemingway to Anne Sexton, many talented writers struggled with depression and mental illness but sadly lost their battle. Find out more about these writers and the work that made them famous.
Many talented writers share a history
of mental illness and suicidal tendencies. Either due to the effects
of old age or lingering childhood trauma, these writers made the
decision to end their lives rather than continue on with their
struggle. It was not for a lack of trying. Most of these writers
spent years of their lives seeking treatment for the mental illness
that plagued them, yet could not seem to shake it. Despite their
struggles, these writers managed to write some of the most
influential works in literary history. Although they died
prematurely, these authors will forever live on in their books, poems
and stories.
1. Ernest Hemingway
Born in 1899 in Illinois, Hemingway was
an author and journalist who got his start in journalism as a
reporter for the Kansas City Star before signing up as an ambulance
driver in Italy when WWI broke out. It was this wartime experience
that inspired his many war-themed novels such as “A Farewell to
Arms” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and kick-started his career
as a war correspondent. Depression and alcoholism plagued Hemingway.
His health problems, which were caused by two plane accidents he
survived in Africa in the 1950s, and depression worsened as he aged
and he sought electroshock therapy to treat his mental illness.
Feeling that the treatments were destroying his memories and ability
to write, Hemingway shot himself in the head with a shotgun in June
of 1961.
2. Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was a poet and novelist
from Boston, Massachusetts. A graduate of Smith College, Plath wrote
and published numerous volumes of poetry such as “The Colossus”
as well as her famous novel “The Bell Jar.” Depression plagued
Plath her entire life, starting in college when she made her first
suicide attempt by crawling under her house and taking an overdose of
her mother's sleeping pills. Over the course of her life she
underwent many electroshock treatments in an attempt to cure her
mental illness. After her marriage to poet Ted Hughes failed in 1963,
Plath committed suicide by poisoning herself with carbon monoxide
from her gas oven.
3. Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson was a novelist and
journalist from Louisville, Kentucky. Born in 1937, Thompson began
his journalism career working as a sport editor for a military
publication during a brief stint in the air force. He eventually
found work as a freelancer, traveling around the world to places such
as Puerto Rico, New York and South America. In 1961, Thompson also
traveled to Idaho to investigate the reasons behind Hemingway's
suicide. During his journalism career, Thompson wrote many novels
including “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “The Rum Diary”
and “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.” Thompson began to
suffer a bout of health problems in the later years of his life and
shot himself in the head with his handgun in February of 2005.
4. Virginia Woolf
Born in 1882, Virginia Woolf was a
novelist from London, England who was born during a time when women
were not allowed to seek an education. Educated at home, Woolf, who's
maiden name was Stephen, was the daughter of literary critic and
editor, Sir Leslie Stephen, and had full access to her father's
library. Virginia Woolf published her first novel, “The Voyage Out”
in 1915. Over the course of her career she published numerous novels,
short stories, essays and non-fiction books such as “Orlando,”
“Mrs. Dalloway” and “A Room of One's Own” Woolf suffered from
depression and mental illness from a young age and made her first
suicide attempt after the death of her mother when Virginia was 13
years old. She made several other attempts during her lifetime but
survived each one. After her depression symptoms returned yet again
in 1941, Virginia left her house in Rodmell one afternoon in March
and walked to the nearby river Ouse where she put a large rock in her
pocket and drowned herself.
5. Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton was a Pulitzer
prize-winning poet from Newton, Massachusetts and a friend of Sylvia
Plath. Sexton suffered from severe mental illness for most of her
life, making several suicide attempts during her lifetime, and began
writing poetry at the suggestion of her long-time therapist Martin
Orne. Her poetry was published in a number of publications such as
The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine and the Saturday Review. After
having an affair with her therapist, Sexton poisoned herself with
carbon monoxide when she locked herself in the garage and started the
engine to her car in October of 1974.
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