Why Suicide?
Answers to 200 of the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Suicide, Attempted Suicide, and Assisted Suicide
HarperSanFrancisco
1996
From Eric Marcus:
Right after I finished work on The Male Couple's Guide, I went to work at ABC's Good Morning America. It was there during my lunch hour that I started doing research on suicide for what I imagined would be a book about the aftermath of suicide - a basic book written specifically for those left behind.
My reasons for wanting to write a book about suicide were simple. My father committed suicide in 1970, when he was forty-four years old. I was twelve. My family responded the way most people did in those days and simply kept the nature of my fathe's death a secret. Twelve year olds are not nearly as clueless as they may look. I was aware of everything, but knew enough not to say anything. For years.
The book I wanted to write was the book that I wish had been available to me and to my family when my father died. So I wrote it in a way that made it accessible to all readers - perhaps not most twelve year olds, but certainly to anyone older than fourteen.
Researching and writing the book proved to be very difficult, forcing me to deal with memories and feelings that I was accustomed to keeping at bay. Keeping my feelings at bay proved impossible to do while interviewing someone, for example, whose brother had committed suicide or when asking a young mother how she told her seven-year-old that her father drowned himself. But at least the people I interviewed knew that I had a pretty good sense of the pain they were experiencing. I was not a dispassionate reporter.
A few years back, my new editor at HarperSanFrancisco agreed to publish a revised edition of Why Suicide? and I even went so far as to hire a research assistant to collect the latest information on suicide, which she did. But I somehow managed never to find the time to do the work, and the new research is now old research and it remains on a shelf in my office gathering dust. I guess I'm not ready to revisit yet again that painful piece of my personal history.
Praise for Why Suicide?
A must-read book for anyone whose life has been touched by suicide. It's compassionate, informative, and heartfelt. Do yourself a favor and start the healing with this splendid book!
Dear Abby, Advice Columnist
It would have been such a comfort to have read this book after I lost my husband Edgar to suicide.
Joan Rivers, Comedienne
I opened this book and said Where was this when I needed it?!?
Judy Collins, Singer/Songwriter
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