Military leaders of the past have committed suicide in the presence of their loyal officers to prevent their capture. Even the Bible gives several accounts of very public suicides, from Samson to Saul to Judas. But writing about suicides is only a recent phenomenon. Suicide notes became popular once there was an outlet to read them in, namely newspapers. Yukio Mishima committed seppuku in a very public manner, giving his last words before a captive Japanese army.
People try to send messages through their suicides and the manner in which they happen.
The other reason people write is because it is an outlet for these suicidal urges and impulses, a safety valve of some sort. This has remained an area of intense personal interest to me, because as I entered a depressive and sometimes suicidal period in my life four years ago, the want - no, the need to write became ever more acute. And when one cannot write, one becomes even more despondent. For example, Ernest Hemingway seemed incapable of writing anymore, and many believe it directly lead to his suicide. The focus of this collection is suicidal writers and their works, but in a way, it is an attempt to piece together exactly what suicide is in an artistic individual, for rarely is a writer's suicide not thought out in their writings.