Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel dies aged 52 after battle with breast cancer

Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel
Dan Callister/Shutterstock
Jacob Jarvis7 January 2020

Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel has died at the age of 52.

Her husband told the Washington Post that the 52-year-old had undergone a double mastectomy but the cancer metastasised to her brain.

She died at a hospital in Manhattan on January 7.

Her memoirs chronicled her issues with depression and drugs and became bestselling books.

She is credited with rejuvenating a boom in confessional writing.

Prozac Nation, published in 1994, detailed her struggles with depression while she completed college and then working as a writer.

As tributes poured in for the writer, New York Times writer Amanda Fortini wrote on Twitter: "I knew Lizzie for 20 years. She was brilliant, unapologetic, honest, difficult, very empathic, sharp but also kind—a true original, herself. It’s impossible to imagine her gone, her life force was that strong."

Others praised her work and spoke of how it had helped them when they read it.

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