John Berryman

:For the English recipient of the Victoria Cross, see John Berryman (VC)

Suicide

Berryman's life was dominated by suicide. In 1924, when the poet was ten, his father, John Smith, a banker in Florida, shot himself. The poet was the first person to discover the body. After his father's death, the poet's mother remarried, and thus he came to his new surname of Berryman. The vision of his father's suicide haunted John Berryman's poetic imagination, and the subject is addressed indirectly in the Dream Songs several times and directly once, where the poet wishes that he could kill the corpse of his father. Berryman was an alcoholic, and friends reported that even as a student at Columbia University he was two different people when drinking and sober. As a mature poet, Berryman's alcoholism and depression interfered with his ability to give readings, to speak in public, and to work appropriately. In 1972, Berryman's depression led him to follow the example of his father and to kill himself by jumping from the Washington Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Related Topics:
1924 - Florida - Alcoholic - Columbia University - Depression - Washington Avenue Bridge - Minneapolis, Minnesota

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