April 2004 Archive

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.

For the report, published in the Journal of Death Studies, Kaufman studied 1,987 dead writers from various centuries from the United States, China, Turkey and Eastern Europe. He classified the writers as fiction writers, poets, playwrights, and nonfiction writers. He did not study the causes of death.

“Among American, Chinese and Turkish writers, poets died significantly younger than nonfiction writers,” Kaufman wrote in the report. “Among the entire sample, poets died younger than both fiction writers and nonfiction writers.”

Because Kaufman studied some writers who lived hundreds of years ago, it is impossible to compare their average age of death to that of the general population.

AVERAGE LITERARY LIFE SPANS
The study found this
Haiku holds the threat of death
Write prose live longer

Poets 62
Playwrights 63
Novelists 66
Nonfictionwriters 68

Source: Journal of Death Studies

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“On average, poets lived 62 years, playwrights 63 years, novelists 66 years and nonfiction writers lived 68 years,” Kaufman said in an interview conducted by e-mail.

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.

So when a budding novelist dies young, few people may notice.

“A great novelist or nonfiction writer who dies at 28 may not have yet produced her or his magnum opus.”

Kaufman said poets should not worry, but should perhaps look after their health.