American literature wouldn’t be what it is today without Ernest Hemingway, but depression deeply plagued the Hemingway family. At 29, when Hemingway’s career was taking off, his father shot himself before witnessing his son earn a Nobel Prize, Pulitzers and international fame.
Although Ernest was successful, he also killed himself with a shotgun at age 61 in 1961. His sister, Ursula, who also struggled with depression and cancer, overdosed five years after the famous author. Sixteen years later, Leicester, Ernest’s brother, shot himself when he learned he’d lose both his legs from diabetes. Then, in 1996, Margaux, Ernest’s granddaughter, overdosed on barbiturates (central nervous system depressants) on the 35th anniversary of Hemingway’s death.