“Dr. Seuss’s first wife, Helen Palmer, left him a suicide note after overdosing on barbiturates that is utterly heartbreaking: ‘Dear Ted, What has happened to us? I don’t know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down down down, into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, ‘failure, failure, failure…’ I love you so much…I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you… My going will leave quite a rumor, but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed… Sometimes, think of the fun we had all through the years…’ Just eight months after she killed herself, he married his mistress.”
