Editing William Styron (section)

==''Darkness Visible''==
Styron's readership expanded with the publication of [[Darkness Visible (memoir)|''Darkness Visible'']] in 1990. This memoir, which began as a magazine article, chronicles the author's descent into [[major depression|depression]] and his near-fatal night of "despair beyond despair".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/books/03styr.html| title=Styron Visible: Naming the Evils That Humans Do| work=The New York Times| first=Michiko|last=Kakutani|author-link=Michiko Kakutani| date= November 3, 2006|access-date=November 23, 2024}}</ref> It is a first-hand account of a major depressive episode and challenged the modern taboo on acknowledging such issues. The memoir's goals included increasing knowledge and decreasing stigmatization of major depressive disorders and suicide. It explored the [[Phenomenology (psychology)|phenomenology]] of the disease among those with depression, their loved ones, and the general public as well. 

Earlier, in December 1989, Styron had written an op-ed for ''[[The New York Times]]'' responding to the disappointment and mystification among scholars about the apparent suicide of [[Primo Levi]], the remarkable Italian writer who survived the [[Nazi death camps]], but apparently had depression in his final years. Reportedly, it was the public's unsympathetic response to Levi's death that impelled Styron to take a more active role as an advocate for educating the public about the nature of depression and the role it played in mental health and suicide.<ref name="Eric Homberger"/> 

Styron noted in an article for ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' that<blockquote>the pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it, and it kills in many instances because its anguish can no longer be borne. The prevention of many suicides will continue to be hindered until there is a general awareness of the nature of this pain. Through the healing process of time—and through medical intervention or hospitalization in many cases—most people survive depression, which may be its only blessing; but to the tragic legion who are compelled to destroy themselves there should be no more reproof attached than to the victims of terminal cancer.<ref name="Vanity Fair Darkness visible">{{cite news|last=Styron|first=William|title=Darkness Visible|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1989/12/styron198912|access-date=April 11, 2013|newspaper=Vanity Fair|date=December 1989|archive-date=April 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413093401/http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1989/12/styron198912|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>