Writers (and Other Famous People) Who Battled Depression

There are so many writers whose wonderful works we have enjoyed while they were suffering and battling with depression.

Several years ago, I read an article titled “Depression: 10 Great Authors Who Battled with This Mental Illness” **. It was a very informative read. Three women and seven men comprised the list. Of the ten on the list, four attempted suicide and two actually succeeded. It was an interesting article. There is no indication in the brief bio summaries that any of these writers received or were under continued medical observation and treatment. Their stories were disheartening, but one sometimes selfishly wonders what their writings might have been like had they not been depressed.

Would people have appreciated their work? Even if people didn’t, it’s a shame their writing was not more therapeutic for them. Don’t you agree? Depression is a very common ailment, often treated by activities such as writing, music, art, etc. Unfortunately, in their cases, it didn’t seem to help at all.

** The aforementioned article had been published via YAHOO Voices, which no longer exists. Fortunately, I located an archived copy by way of the Wayback Machine. and can give the writer proper credit.

All too often, people suffering from mental illness are overlooked, discounted, disregarded, and not properly treated. Although this is not an area of expertise for me, it is definitely a topic of interest. It’s probably a topic of interest to many people, but they don’t want to say that out loud. 

Hope the related links supplied below are helpful.

• 7 Famous Writers With Mental Disorders

• 9 Famous Writers With Depression, From Sylvia Plath To J.K. Rowling 

• 12 Famous People With Bipolar Disorder

• 15 Celebrities Who Are Living Well With Depression

♦ DON'T SUFFER!  GET HELP!

SAMHSA - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration https://www.samhsa.gov/

RESOURCE LIBRARY - The Mental Health Coalition https://www.thementalhealthcoalition.org/resources/

Mental Health Resources | Mental Health | CDC https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health/caring/index.html

Who is Peter Ackroyd? Biographer, Historian, Poet, Novelist, Etc. Eccentric

Who is Peter Ackroyd?

Hmmm ... let me think.  Is he the guy in the photograph below?

Nope!  But you're close!  

The guy in the photo below is Charles Dickens.  Peter Ackroyd wrote a biography about Dickens.  He also wrote a bio about William Shakespeare, in case the mention about the Charles Dickens bio is not impressive enough.  :)  If that's not impressive enough, then if you like biographies or biographical notes about celebrated, it might interest you to know that he wrote a bunch of books about famous people like Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Isaac Newton, and more.  

His series is called Ackroyd's Brief Lives.

 

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Peter Ackroyd is an author. A word to describe him? Eccentric. There was another word used to describe him but it wasn’t very complimentary (my opinion), and as such, won’t be mentioned by me.  A few synonyms for eccentric are: odd, bizarre, outlandish, peculiar, weird and strange. Sounds like he lives in Austin, Texas. But he currently resides in England.  Eccentric? I’ll say. He writes using a pen and paper in longhand. That’s insane! Nobody does that anymore!

“It’s just the way I work”, he says.

Well fine then, Mr. Ackroyd. You certainly can’t be accused of not working.  Peter Ackroyd’s body of writings include: poetry, bibliographies of notable persons like T.S. Eliot, Charles Dickens, and William Shakespeare, a series of history books for children, a collection of English ghost stories, and several novels. He even retold Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and wrote a libretta for an opera.  His current projects include:  the completion of  six volumes of the History of England, a few more novels, and a biography of Alfred Hitchock.

Where does he find the time?  Uh … that’s all he does, all day and all night.  He says he isn’t much interested in socializing and reserves two Sundays in the month for some interaction with people.  Most of the time, it’s just him and his books.

Has Mr. Ackroyd written so many books you don’t know where to begin?  Start here: The Trial of Elizabeth Cree; a murder mystery, the setting is 1880 Victorian London; a woman is accused of poisoning her husband.

* * *

Reference:
Rosen, Jody. “Man of Many Words: Up Close and Personal with Peter Ackroyd …” T: New York Times Style Magazine 15 Sept. 2013: 110-14. Print. Men’s Fashion Issue, Arts and Letters

Related articles

• 10 Very Eccentric Sides Of Famous People(listverse.com)
• Famous writers and the sports they played(prdaily.com)

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• Dickens Junction Mystery Series

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• Inspiring Biographies

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Peter Ackroyd books are available ~ Save up to 90% at BiggerBooks.com

 

Always Laugh When You Can ... | We Heart It

Started using WHI (We Heart It). Know what you're thinking. There's Pinterest, Scoop.it, StumbleUpon, etc. Why create another set of collections? Why? Because they share really good stuff on WHI that is different from my findings elsewhere on the web and because it's so easy to click that little “heart” button on the images. I have a Tumblr blog and lots of folks on Tumblr use it. That's how I found the site. 

This lovely quote by Lord Byron is my 100th “heart”. ♥

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