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.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent time in the gulag(s)/work camps but survived the experience. He was stripped of his Russian citizenship in the 1970s and was forced to live in West Germany before living in America for about 15/16 years. But, he was one of the relatively lucky ones.
Russian authors are basically a cheat code for this thread.
They really are. I wouldn’t wish being imprisoned in a gulag/work camp on anybody.
I went to high school with his son- whom we affectionately called Stoli. He was one of the nicest and smartest people you could ever meet!