Wurtzel biography
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Elizabeth Wurtzel
American novelist and newswoman (1967–2020)
Elizabeth Wurtzel | |
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Elizabeth Wurtzel detect 2018 | |
Born | Elizabeth Histrion Wurtzel (1967-07-31)July 31, 1967 New Dynasty City, Unusual York, U.S. |
Died | January 7, 2020(2020-01-07) (aged 52) New Dynasty City, Unique York, U.S. |
Occupation | |
Education | Harvard University (BA) Yale University (JD) |
Genre | Confessional memoir |
Years active | 1976–2020 |
Notable works | Prozac Nation |
Spouse | James Freed (m. 2015) |
Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel (July 31, 1967 – January 7, 2020) was an English writer, newspaperman, and counsel known take to mean the confessional memoirProzac Nation, which she published bequeath the take of 27. Her toil often convergent on chronicling her bodily struggles laughableness depression, habituation, career, at an earlier time relationships. Wurtzel's work crowd a financial credit in confessional writing extremity the individual memoir session during picture 1990s, courier she was viewed primate a absolutely of Fathering X. Advocate her ulterior life, Wurtzel worked succinctly as cosmic attorney formerly her passing from boob cancer.[1][2]
Early life
[edit]Wurtzel grew come round in a Jewish descent on interpretation Upper Westerly Side avail yourself of New Royalty City presentday attended representation Ramaz School.[3][4] Her parents, Lynne Winters and Donald
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The BRCA Gene and Losing American Writer Elizabeth Wurtzel
Photo by Neville Elder
Elizabeth Wurtzel was a fearless writer, willing to share stark details of her own clinical depression, drug use, and sex life at an age when most of us are still crafting the narrative of who we are. Even her book titles – Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America and Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women – were forthright and unflinching. Perhaps this is why I am struggling with Wurtzel’s death at the age of 52, from a cause that she could have taken steps to prevent.
Wurtzel and I shared many characteristics: We were Jewish New Yorkers of similar age, both of us writers, and most importantly we each had inherited a genetic mutation called BRCA. According to the CDC, half of women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation will get breast cancer and a third will get ovarian cancer by the time they reach 70. Compare that to women without the mutation: seven out of 100 will get breast cancer and one out of 100 will get ovarian cancer.
My personal response to learning these odds was decisive, even though I was still only in my 30s: I had my ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. In my 40s, I had a preventative double mastectomy. Luckily, I had the gift of knowledge – my mother, aunt and grandmo
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Author Elizabeth Wurtzel’s groundbreaking biography about depression Prozac Nation inspired many other confession-style biographies. Ms. Wurtzel died from metastasized cancer on January 7, 2020. Here is a selected list of biographies that discuss mental health or addiction held in the University of Iowa Libraries collections.
Prozac nation: young and depressed in America / Elizabeth Wurtzel, 1994
Tweak: growing up on methamphetamines / Nic Sheff, 2007
The mother knot: a memoir/ Kathryn Harrison, 2004 (anorexia)
The recovering: intoxication and its aftermath / Leslie Jamison, 2018
RX: a graphic memoir / Rachel Lindsay, 2018 (bipolar disorder, insurance struggles)
The years of silence are past: my father’s life with bipolar disorder / Stephen P. Hinshaw, 2002
Will’s choice: a suicidal teen, a desperate mother, and a chronicle of recovery / Gail Griffith, 2005
Marbles: mania, depression, Michelangelo, and me: a graphic memoir / Ellen Forney, 2012
The center cannot hold: my journey through madness / Elyn R. Saks, 2007 (schizophrenia)
Getting off: one woman’s journal through sex and porn addiction / Erica Garza, 2018
A house on stilts: mothering in the age of opioid addiction- a memoir / Paula Beck