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.
William Sleator. His books are some of the most frequently requested in the “What was that book” groups. He’s like the thinking man’s R.L. Stine, writing middle grade science fiction. Memorable plots, but no one remembers his name.
He was also a gay (before that was remotely accepted) alcoholic who drank himself to death.
Oh man. I loved his books. Didn’t know that last part.
Did not expect this name. Singularity and Interstellar Pig blew my young mind. Many years later I had a “what was that book” moment and now they’re both on my shelf, and they hold up as an adult. They would never get published today in their category.
Guess I need to look up his other stuff!
I loved Singularity when I was in middle school. It was a beat-up copy with the cover falling off in the school library. I was doing some community service in my old school about four years later and took a peek and saw that I was the last person to have checked it out. So being the dumb teenager I was I took it. I told my mother about it ~15 years later and she ended up getting me two copies of the book for Christmas that year. One was a recent print in paperback and the other was a first edition hardback signed by William Sleator.
I forgot how many times I read Interstellar Pig.
I never played the game it was based on Cosmic Encounter.
I never played the game based on the book Chaosmos. I read the sequel to Interstellar Pig.
The only book which approaches William Sleator’s adeptness in writing claustrophobic families is Zelazny such as in A Dark Travelling.
William Sleator’s The Last Universe in retrospect seems inspired by Jorge Luis Borges Library of Babel.
William Sleator was an acute study of his own family as well as how beyond human normal scientific technology might empower the young protagonist. Or how this scientific advancement might endanger them. The enchantment of technology and it’s danger is a major theme in our modern society and our media.
William Sleator wrote a very readable one story in a one-and-done format.
These books and their stories of enchanting technology and claustrophobic families were a part of my happiness as a child.
There was a SEQUEL
Parasite Pig
I remember reading The Boxes and Marco’s Millions in grade school. Damn, never knew that about the author.
House of Stairs was so far ahead of its time. He was a great YA writer. Didn’t know he drank himself to death.
I didn’t know anything about him either, but “House of Stairs” has been a favorite since about…1978? I’ve reread it several times as an adult, and I still think it’s fantastic.
I love his work! Marco’s Millions is such a fantastic science fiction MG.
As a young reader in the 80’s, Sleator was a gateway into sci-fi. My lifelong friend and I (both in mid-40’s) still talk about him when we chat about books.