The Sylvia Plath Effect: How an Artist’s Suicide Changes the Work Left Behind

“[When a] young artist (or writer or actor) is a suicide, the quality of the material [he or she made] is often overlooked because it is immediately more valuable. The lurching randomness of existence suddenly has a steady meaning. Everything done or said by the deceased seems to be a clue that will explain why someone would choose to die rather than live.”