Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomon studied at Yale University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1985, and then at Jesus College Cambridge, where he received the top first-class degree in English in his year, the only foreign student ever to be so-honored, as well as the University writing prize. He is the author of several books, including The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, for which he won a Lambda Literary Award and a National Book Award in 2001, and was a finalist for a 2002 Pulitzer Prize. He is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
Articles by this Author
The experience of darkness and hope
- By Andrew Solomon
- Published 06/18/2008
- Depression
Depression is an illness of loneliness. And the primary experience is
the feeling of being isolated, of being alone, of being cut off from
everyone and everything. ///
These experiences of darkness make the light more beautiful, that the
pain of being acutely depressed allows you to experience an
unbelievable happiness in every day when you aren't depressed and a
sense that each of those days is a gift.
So that's the real message of hope, is that you can get better.
Faces of Depression: Andrew Solomon
- By Andrew Solomon
- Published 06/18/2008
- Depression
Excerpt from PBS
interview with Andrew Solomon.
By his mid-twenties, Solomon established
himself as a multi-disciplinary wunderkind, earning international
accolades for his work as a novelist, journalist and historian.
After the death of his mother, the then
31 year old Solomon descended into a major depression, rendering him
unable to work or even care for himself. He was helped by a combination
of medications and talk therapy.
I'm Not Mad. Or Am I?
- By Andrew Solomon
- Published 06/17/2008
- Depression
I began to notice I was constantly
bored. My first novel had been published in England and yet its
favourable reception did little for me. I read the reviews
indifferently and felt tired all the time. I
found myself burdened by social events, even by conversation. It all
seemed like more effort than it was worth. I began to feel that no one
could love me and that I would never be in a relationship again.