Famous Authors Who Suffered With Chronic Disease Or Physical Ailments
Originally Posted at : Gobookmart.com
Great writers are known to have a long history of suffering. Some suffer psychological turmoil and depression, some alcoholism, some have unhappy childhood and some endure chronic disease and physical ailments. All these suffering have a way of impacting the work of writers. There are writers who suffered from chronic diseases and physical ailments and were still able to create masterpieces. Here are 7 Famous Authors Who Suffered With Chronic Disease Or Physical Ailments.
List Of Famous Authors Who Suffered With Chronic Disease Or Physical Ailments:
George Orwell
George Orwell, the famous author of 1984 and Animal Farm. He suffered from damaged bronchial tubes (bronchiectasis) because of a bacterial infection he has during his childhood. Latter as an adult, he contracted tuberculosis. While working on his great novel 1984, Orwell had his final and fatal attack of tuberculosis. He had also survived four episodes of pneumonia and a bullet through the neck. He contracted tuberculosis during his years of tramping, poverty, and vagabondage. Orwell underwent injections of air into his peritoneal cavity in a failed attempt to collapse the tuberculous lung, a tribulation that influenced the tortures of protagonist of 1984 Winston Smith.
James Joyce
James Joyce, the Irish author of Ulysses and Dubliners suffered from gonorrhea. He is in the list of famous authors who suffered with chronic disease or physical ailments. As he started going through radical treatment for gonorrhea he began to have eye problems and arthritis. This may have been an auto-immune illness triggered by genital Chlamydia. Joyce suffered through 11 grueling eye surgeries to gain his vision back.
The Brontë Sisters
All three Brontë sisters died of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis entered the Brontë household after the older girls were infected at the Clergy Daughter’s School. This school was the place that inspiredCharlotte to create brutal Lowood School in Jane Eyre, where the girls were beaten, starved, and terrorized by tales of damnation. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne had suffered from depressive episodes; Emily is said to also had Asperger’s syndrome and social anxiety disorder.
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift author of Gulliver’s Travels, suffered from Ménière’s disease which is an inner ear condition that led to vertigo and tinnitus. He also had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Jonathan Swift had his most productive decade in his 50s, when he wrote Gulliver’s Travels.
Herman Melville
Herman Melville author of Moby Dick suffered from chronic pains in his joints, back and eyes, which are symptoms of Bechterew’s disease, which is an autoimmune disease. Melville probably had bipolar disorder. It is said that Moby-Dick was written in a near-manic state of euphoria. Melville also suffered from depression and alcoholism as he aged. He had a riding accident, where he shattered his scapula (shoulder bone) which led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Jack London
Jack London, author of Call Of The Wild and White Fang, who was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and the first millionaire author in history had bipolar disorder. Due to his misadventures Jack London suffered from various diseases such as scurvy in the Yukon, alcoholism, he developed leg ulcers from the tropical disease yaws on a sailing cruise in the Pacific, and he ruined his kidneys by self-medicating with mercury. He acted as his own doctor, and used a hypodermic needle to inject himself with opium, heroin and other substances. He died of a morphine overdose at 40.
John Milton
John Milton who was an English poet, who went blind in middle age because of detached retina. He experimented with all manners of unproven bizarre remedies, from cat ointment to ground-up human bones which was called “mummy”, human sweat, cat-ointment, oil of puppies, and sugar of lead in a failed attempt to improve his vision. These remedies later ruined his kidneys and led to gout.
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