Final Drafts

the long version

"In Final Drafts Suicides of World-Famous Authors writer Mark Seinfelt examines in depth the lives and deaths of twenty-five authors who killed themselves between 1894 and 1991."--BOOK JACKET. "The list is long. Each of the artists who took his or her life did so for unique reasons. But distinct patterns do emerge: several questioned their own abilities as writers; some felt guilt at being gay or lesbian; others suffered debilitating illnesses or believed they were going mad; still others succumbed to manic depression. But all faced the agonies considered peculiar to artists: the constant struggle to create and an overwhelming sense of alienation from a hostile or indifferent public. Final Drafts is both a biographical treatment and a psychological examination of the authors of the past century who left this world on their own terms. It is also a devoted examination of references to suicide in literature, both in the authors' own communications and in the stories of writers who contemplated suicide but decided to live."--BOOK JACKET.