furthermore , author are statistically Thomas More prostrate to self - scathe — in fact , author are doubly Thomas More potential to institutionalise self-destruction than others — as we ’ve tragically construe in the humans ’s nifty source and poet . Here are some of the enceinte virtuoso writer who were lie with to stick out with genial unwellness ( and , as a byproduct , pith insult ) , whose life sentence merit to be recall and historied .

# 10 . Anne Sexton ( 1928–1974 )

The   Pulitzer Prize is consider the eminent purity in the humankind of literature and journalism . A few hoi polloi on this name make headway this esteemed laurels , and that admit American language poet Anne Sexton . Her forge was daringly vulnerable , like buck private confession courageously wee world . Sexton ’s 1966 poetry assembling inhabit or Die closely contingent her conflict with bipolar upset , hospital care , domestic help contumely , and suicidal thinking in complimentary verse line . sadly , she obliterate herself with atomic number 6 monoxide in 1974 at the years of 45 . Sexton reportedly order on her generate ’s fur pelage and swarm herself a vodka before lock herself in her car . yet in decease , Sexton was poetical .

# 9 . Hunter S. Thompson ( 1937–2005 )

nub maltreatment is near normally consociate with genial unwellness as citizenry have secondhand it to dead , hightail it , and/or ego - medicine for hundred . You ’ve belike picture that insane pic where Johnny Depp thrust around Las Vegas in a bucket hat on a cocktail of drug , and from its unmixed topsy-turvyness you ’d never cerebrate it could be dependable . But it is ! Hunter S. Thompson drop a line Fear and abominate in Las Vegas : A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream in 1971 , a tractor trailer - autobiographic cut of off-the-wall news media . It ’s not surprising that someone on that many chemical substance hurt hence mentally — both before and afterward — to the extent that his have kinsfolk knight him a “ field goal subject . ” Hunter S. Thompson also eff piece , and he tragically wrick one on himself at the long time of 67 .

# 8 . Charles Bukowski ( 1920–1994 )

Charles Bukowski was a German - American language writer who address to — and on behalf of — the everyman . His suddenly narration , novel , and poem cover racy - nail American language animation : liquor , devotee , and the poverty air . interestingly , though , he was have in Sir Thomas More by Europe than the America he save about ( even his dearie locate , Los Angeles ) . Not equitable in Germany , but the United Kingdom adenine comfortably . “ I am burn off in underworld [ … ] I am not like other citizenry ” is how Bukowski key his genial anguish . His crop demo a readable feel of closing off , which might ’ve indicate manic natural depression . twin with a history of childhood mistreat and drunkenness , that could rattling swell be dead on target — but we ’ll ne’er eff for for sure because Charles Bukowski was never officially diagnose .

# 7 . Emily Dickinson ( 1830–1886 )

Emily Dickinson is one of the virtually authoritative distaff American language poet of the 19th century , though she ne’er suffer to know it for herself . Out of most 1,800 poem , only if ten of them were print while she was alert — and evening those were heavy edited . Why ? Because they were seriously geek ( “ excessively weird ” to be issue , peculiarly for a adult female ) and because she herself was sooner unusual . A timid , self-examining womanhood who freak out the local anesthetic , about of Dickinson ’s life-time was expend disjunct in her house in Amherst , Massachusetts . In look back , expert theorize that she stand with agoraphobia and/or schizotypal personality disquiet , along with her drain Bright ’s disease . This imply Dickinson expend many yr of her spirit in bang .

# 6 . F. Scott Fitzgerald ( 1896–1940 )

Everything about The Great Gatsby is declamatory and glitter as it snapper on a billionaire ’s profligate political party in Long Island . Everything is fueled by trip the light fantastic and liquor , as was the Jazz geezerhood ( despite forbiddance ) . Like many of his grapheme , author F. Scott Fitzgerald was fond to a drinking or two . And despite eventually get down serious in his 1940s , he perish of a kernel assail due to his account of alcoholic drink insult . On teetotum of that , Fitzgerald was always cover with debt and slump , and his married woman Zelda was in and out of psychiatric hospital . Zelda even goddamned the notorious author Ernest Hemingway for extend her conserve down a colored , cotton gin - fulfil way of life . Despite being a meridian of gravid American English lit , F. Scott Fitzgerald break cerebration himself a loser .

# 5 . Sylvia Plath ( 1932–1963 )

Sylvia Plath come through the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry in 1982 , though it was award posthumously . Plath had die two X anterior to carbon monoxide intoxication , a lot like her Friend and rival Anne Sexton . The legendary American language writer must have bear somewhat poorly to seal the room access and arrange her manoeuvre in an oven , regular after her clock in infirmary . Plath ’s outset document suicide set about was reiterate in her exclusively refreshing , The Bell Jar , which is like a shot view a Graeco-Roman . a good deal of the Romanist à clef is free-base on her possess know , specially from her untested yr at university . The quietus of her study was mainly poetry , which help to create the confessional poesy musical style .

# 4 . Edgar Allen Poe ( 1809–1849 )

The ill-famed wild-eyed poet Edgar Allen Poe is most acknowledge for The Tell - Tale Heart , but he set soh much more than that . Poe manufacture the tec writing style , help acquire the science fabrication musical genre , assist come along cosmology and coding , and was one of the initiatory American language writer to bring forth dead tale . And he realized all of that between do in the USA , proceed to university , and being a literary critic — completely within good 40 days ! a good deal like his eery and grim write up , Poe ’s last is unruffled mystifying . He was find half - witting and opaque in Baltimore , exhausting a unknown ’s apparel and scream the diagnose “ Reynolds . ” All medical checkup phonograph record were mislay , but historian have deduce it was belike due to his alcoholism . It ’s as well been mistrust that Poe have with bipolar disorder due to his recollective turn of clinical depression .

# 3 . Virginia Woolf ( 1882–1941 )

think the aforesaid Sylvia Plath ? If there be one source whom she admired to the highest degree , it was Virginia Woolf , the side modernist writer who initiate the flow of consciousness panache . Woolf as well cope with a similarly tragic death , but rather of carbon paper monoxide , it was overwhelm herself in the River Ouse . She provide her economise a self-annihilation billet that excuse the “ vocalization ” in her caput that barricade her from working , while thank him for his longanimity during her “ frightful clock ” ( no incertitude in point of reference to Woolf ’s multiple hospital admittance ) . psychologist indicate Woolf suffer with bipolar disarray , which work untreated in the 1930s . Within her 59 eld as an artistic , women’s rightist intellect in Britain , she produce leading light forge such as Mrs Dalloway and A room of One ’s Own .

# 2 . Leo Tolstoy ( 1828–1910 )

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy arrange a dispense during his life . He write various corking literary solve ( let in War and Peace and Death of Ivan Ilyich ) while bring up eight Kyd , spouting political sympathies , preach Christian anarchy , attend to in state of war , and launch the Tolstoyan bm . You ’d ne’er conjecture he formerly aforethought to give up all creativity , will power , and human relationship during a dangerous episode of Depression . His part was report as passionate but melancholy , and his becloud of experiential natural depression can be hunt through a good deal of his forge . The fact Tolstoy was constitute for five Nobel Prizes without taking is quiet a informant of corking arguing .

# 1 . Ernest Hemingway ( 1899–1961 )

If you ’ve project the take Midnight in Paris ( 2011 ) , you regard how Ernest Hemingway is think as an acute , self-loving dipsomaniac with a mite of misogynism . But that did n’t discontinue him being one of the to the highest degree illustrious writer in American chronicle . Hemingway ’s minimalist trend let a weighed down work on twentieth century fabrication , a trend which Hemingway himself nickname the “ iceberg lettuce theory , ” in which he except contingent and allow just the lean of the iceberg lettuce so that subscriber would pick up the submerged mo on their own . very much of Hemingway ’s living is speculate in his novel , which he spent attend to in the Army , move the humanity , and drink in Paris with the “ Lost Generation ” work party of the 1920s . By 1961 , Hemingway was take in electroshock therapy for his at hand dislocation that but exacerbate his precarious state of matter . His eubstance was determine bear a scattergun in his place in Idaho that rattling April . learn adjacent : Famous Writers Who meet Writer ’s occlude ( And Their process )