Authors and Writers with Bipolar Disorder

Clifford W. Beers (1876-1943) was a young, Yale graduate well-position to launch his career as a financier when he suffered his first hospitalization due to bipolar disorder. His autobiography, "A Mind That Found Itself," was a benchmark expose on the pathetic conditions to be found in the asylums of that period. His horrific experiences with that and subsequent stays in asylums lead him to a lifelong battle to improve the mental health care system.

Jayson Blair scandalized the journalism world by copying and fabricating dozens of news stories when he worked at the New York Times. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Viewing his actions in terms of a bipolar profile helps make his behavior more understandable.

John Berryman, a modern American poet, led a life was punctuated by brilliant creativity and emotional turbulence. He was haunted by the demons of his father’s suicide, which occurred while still a boy, and a tumultuous relationship with his mother. He chartered a successful career in academia, but always struggled with alcohol abuse, attempted suicides and frequent hospitalizations. Berryman was a man who knew the wild mixture of high mania and low depression; a man who had bipolar disorder.

Moss Hart wrote, co-wrote and/or directed some of the most successful plays, musicals and movies of the 20th century. Though plagued by mood swings, he was able to harness some of the heights and depths in his work and carved for himself a place in theater legend.

Robert Boorstin is a writer. He has a distinguished career as a journalist and advisor. He is well-known for his work in the State Department as a special assistant to President Clinton. In July of 1987, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depression) after a long struggle with depression.

A brief biography of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell. Lowell suffered from bouts of mania and depression throughout his adult life.

Poet Sylvia Plath suffered from extreme bipolar depression that profoundly affected her work and ultimately led to her suicide at the age of 30.

Biographical sketch of novelist Virginia Woolf - a member of the Bloomsbury Group whose manic depressive psychosis ultimately led to her suicide.