We headed downtown last night to mix and mingle at a party for the new book Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous and the Notorious by pop culture journalist (and Transracial bud) Alix Strauss.
The book explores and explains the back-stories behind 20 famous folks who ended their lives via their own hands. Iconic characters such s Kurt Cobain, Anne Sexton, Vincent van Gogh, Abbie Hoffman and others.
Each chapter looks at the how and the why such brilliant minds could no longer contend with society — and is packed with endless, unusual details about their final days, and how their deaths were met by the culture at large.
Some of the people covered — Diane Arbus, Sylvia Plath, Adolph Hitler, Michael Hutchence — are already well-known for both their lives, and how they chose to end them.
Others — including actor Peg Entwistle and singers Ian Curtis (of Joy Division) and Elliott Smith — are less famous, but their stories and losses are equally gripping and tragic.
Interestingly, Strauss was quite prescient in including a chapter on Alan Turing, the Gay British mathematician and World War II hero who killed himself in 1954 following years of state-led persecution over his homosexuality — which even included chemical castration!
In August, an on-line petition was launched to demand an official apology to Turing — and earlier this month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered a Downing Street-backed “I’m sorry” to Turing on behalf of the United Kingdom.
In THIS nifty piece from today on Time.com, Strauss talks about Turing’s legacy and his enduring importance in both her book and the larger culture:
Turing was clearly someone who was way ahead of his time and deeply misunderstood by the society in which he lived, Strauss says. His honesty about his life and loves would be taken for granted today, but more than 50 years ago it led directly to his death. Suicide is still a very serious problem for gays and lesbians, and Brown’s apology could certainly help people struggling today.
We certainly hope so.
Death Becomes Them is out today.