only the good

[novapsyche]

Poets Die Young

Poets die young -- younger than novelists, playwrights and other writers, a U.S. researcher said on Wednesday.

It could be because poets are tortured and prone to self-destruction, or it could be that poets become famous young, so their early deaths are noticed, said James Kaufman of the Learning Research Institute at California State University at San Bernardino.

[...] Kaufman has also studied poets and mental illness.

"What I found was pretty consistent with the death finding actually, female poets were much more likely to suffer from mental illness (e.g., be hospitalized, commit suicide, attempt suicide) than any other kind of writer and more likely than other eminent women," he said.

"I've dubbed this the 'Sylvia Plath Effect."'

Sylvia Plath was a poet and novelist who killed herself in 1963 at the age of 30.

There could also be a more benign explanation for poets' early demise, Kaufman said. "Poets produce twice as much of their lifetime output in their twenties as novelists do," he said.

Comments

[whistlingfish.livejournal.com]

There could be an even more plausible explanation than the one offered by Kaufman: Most novelists and playwrights aren't celebrated until they reach middle age or later, while a good many poets achieve noteriety much earlier. Perhaps we simply celebrate those who are tragic figures. Sounds to me like a PhD needed funding for his research.