Writer Suicides

Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941
The great modernist writer suffered from depression and might well have been bipolar. In the spring of 1941, she filled her overcoat with stones and walked into the River Ouse near her home in England.

Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961
The Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning author lived hard and fast, surviving accidents, suffering chronic pain, and battling depression. He lost the fight in 1961 when he shot himself at home.

Yukio Mishima, 1925-1970
One of Japan’s most important writers, Mishima often wrote about suicide and was obsessed with his country’s samurai past. Following their ancient code, he killed himself by ritual disembowelment after a year of planning.

Spalding Gray, 1941-2004
When the deeply depressed screenwriter and performance artist went missing in January, 2004, many believed he had committed suicide. They were right; he had jumped from New York’s Staten Island Ferry and drowned.

Hunter S. Thompson, 1937-2005
Thompson’s death capped a wild ride of a life. The father of “gonzo journalism” (in which the reporter becomes the story) made a career of running headlong into danger. He killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008
Wallace grappled with weighty topics in his wide-ranging (and comic) novels while wrestling depression for much of his life. When antidepressants and shock therapy failed him, he hung himself at home.