I don't know why writing and sadness go together like peanut butter and jelly. They just do.
The biggest works of literature are about dark stuff like sexual abuse (Toni Morrison in 'Bluest eye'), the loss of a parent (Ocean Vuong in 'Time is a mother'), the loss of a lover or a fantasy (Haruki Murakami in 'Desire'), addiction and becoming a broken shell of a man as a result of it (Douglas Stuart in 'Shuggie Bain') and so on.
Depression does not discriminate anyone and many famous writers we grew to love and care for have struggled with it. Unfortunately, few of them have lost their lives to this illness.
Depression in the literary world
The day you died I went into the dirt,
Into the lightless hibernaculum
Where bees, striped black and gold, sleep out the blizzard
Like hieratic stones, and the ground is hard.
Electra on Azalea Path by Sylvia Plath
This is the beginning of "Electra on Azalea Path" a poem written by Sylvia Plath.
Sylvia Plath's life was quite dark, even darker than her poems. She struggled with mental illness from an early age and married someone who cheated on her later on. In many of the articles written about Plath, it is said that she had a hard time coping with the death of her father as a child.
As a result, she lived her life, trying to mask this sadness and poured all her sorrow into her writing.
However, when she was 30, something in her snapped. Plath chose to take her own life during her stay in London.
At that time she was married to the famous writer Ted Hughes with whom she had two children. We don't know why exactly Plath chose to end her life at the peak of her career while knowing that two innocent humans were dependent on her. But what we do know is that the literary world suffered a great loss.
Virginia Woolf is a famous British writer who produced works like 'The hours', 'To the lighthouse', 'Mrs. Dalloway' and 'Room of one's own'. During her life, she suffered from bipolar disorder and long periods of depression for which she had to be hospitalised.
Unfortunately, she chose to take her own life on March 28, 1941 by walking into a river and having rocks stucked in the pockets of her overcoat. She wrote a beautiful goodbye letter to her husband; you can read it on openculture.com
The American novelist famous for 'A farewell to arms', 'A movable feast' and 'For whom the bell tolls' also suffered from depression. Hemingway travelled extensively during his life and lived in Spain, Cuba and in his home country, USA. It is said that Hemingway suffered from bipolar disorder and depression. The writer committed suicide in 1961 at his home in Idaho by taking a bullet to his head.
Sexton is a famous American poet whose work 'Live or die'(1966) won the Pulitzer Prize. Other notable works of hers are: 'Love poems' (1969), 'Transformations' (1971), 'The book of folly' (1972), and 'The death notebook' (1974).
Sexton suffered from various mental health disorders. She struggled with bipolar disorder, addiction to alcohol and depression. She died at 45 of carbon monoxide poisoning (she locked herself in the car and turned the engine on).
Sexton was a controversial poet during her time. She often wrote about taboo subjects like masturbation, abortion, incest, adultery and drug addiction.
Her poetry book, 'Live or die' is a masterpiece. If you're interested in confessional poetry, I recommend you read this emotional book that will give you chills.
It's no secret that the Harry Potter creator struggled with depression her entire life. In the early 1990s when she returned to the UK to be near her sister, she was struggling financially and was poor. Not only that, but she had to cope with raising her two children while managing her depression.
She contemplated suicide at one point but, on a train ride from Manchester to London, the idea of writing Harry Potter popped into her mind. Months later, she managed to produce the first two Harry Potter books while still collecting unemployment benefits.
After the first Harry Potter books were published, they grew in popularity and the writer started accumulating a level of success that she never knew was possible before.
Not only that but she also recovered from depression, thus, this writer is alive and well as we speak.
Imagine if she let herself fall into that dark pit of depression and took the easy way out before publishing her books.
What would the world be like today without the Harry Potter universe?
Conclusion
Writing is often a solitary activity which implies introspection and a lot of heavy, emotional work. As a result, writers are more vulnerable to depression than others who are in a different line of work. However, even as a writer you can find ways to help yourself while you're suffering.
Support groups for depression are available online and there are many people out there who are willing to listen to your story or just be there for you during the hardest of times.
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