page_title: Darkness Visible (memoir)
section_title: Background and publication history
hierarchical_section_title: Darkness Visible (memoir) / Background and publication history
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost“ by Gustave Doré
context_page_description: Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness is a memoir by American writer William Styron about his descent into depression and the triumph of recovery. It is among the last books published by Styron and is widely considered one of his best and most influential works. Darkness Visible also helped raise awareness for depression, which was relatively unknown at the time.
  First published in December 1989 in Vanity Fair, the book grew out of a lecture that Styron originally delivered at a symposium on affective disorders at the Department of Psychiatry of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
  Through the employment of anecdotes, speculation, and reportage, Styron reflects on the causes and effects of depression, drawing links between his own illness and that of other writers and public figures.
context_section_description: Upon learning of the significant amount of criticism and ignorance directed towards the suicide of Primo Levi, Styron wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in December 1988, maintaining that Levi ended his life not because of a lack of morality, but because of a real, dangerous illness that threatened the health and lives of many people. The op-ed garnered positive reception and compelled many readers to openly speak about their experiences with depression, ultimately inspiring Styron to begin documenting his own ordeal.
  In May 1989, William Styron delivered a lecture about his experience with depression at a symposium for affective disorders at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.Several months later, he adapted the lecture into an essay and published it in the December 1989 issue of Vanity Fair. The following year, Random House published Styron's essay as a full-length memoir titled Darkness Visible, which included additional material that had been excluded from the original work due to limited space in Vanity Fair. For instance, Styron's account of his fateful trip to Paris in October 1985 was not included in the essay, but it was incorporated into Darkness Visible. Other than the few minor additions and changes, Darkness Visible was released as unabridged from the Vanity Fair piece.
  The title of the memoir originates from John Milton's description of Hell in Paradise Lost:
  No light; but rather darkness visible
  Served only to discover sights of woe,
  Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
  And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
  That comes to all, but torture without end
  Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
  With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
caption: An illustration by Gustave Doré for John Milton's Paradise Lost, the latter from which William Styron drew inspiration for the title of his memoir.
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