He jumped from the Washington Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis, where he'd taught poetry for years. Berryman—brilliant, alcoholic, haunted—had already written his masterpiece "The Dream Songs," a fractured epic of grief and madness told through his alter ego Henry. Depression had stalked him for decades, and he'd attempted suicide before. But this time, 57 years old and worn down, he succeeded. The Mississippi River below. A cold January morning. A lifetime of wrestling with personal demons ended in one stark moment.
January 7, 1972
54 years ago
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