I’ve seen people talk about actors and artists that had a terrible time.
My own would be Anne Rice. She wrote Interview with the Vampire after her young daughter died of Leukemia. Then her husband suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage. I suspect her Christian, anti-fanfic phase was a result of mental illness and manipulation from the publishers, although I don’t think she ever apologized.
The Last Unicorn is one of my all-time favorite books. Absolutely beautiful prose, sensitive character work, and (in the character of Schmendrick) a pitch-perfect depiction of what it’s like to be at the mercy of artistic inspiration.
It’s also the reason unicorns are girly. In the first sentence it refers to the unicorn was “she”. Prior to that, unicorn myths were very masculine. VERY.
It’s also very funny and very sad. Really one of my all-time favorite books.
It’s so wonderful on so many levels. And he was like 23 or 24 when he wrote it. It’s rare that you find a writer that young who understands character and story so well.
Was he really!? It’s so utterly accomplished. I had no idea!
Yes! Once you know he was young, it becomes more obvious on a re-read, since he really went ham on the prose, which is what younger/newer writers tend to do until they internalize the old adage “less is more.” But he was so good with his prose in The Last Unicorn, I don’t mind. :)