Spring Break
Artists, Musicians, Writers Who Suffered From STDs
John Bailey
Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: Focus
If you asked him about it, "Don't stop me now," Mercury might have replied. "I'm having such a good time."
Jonathan Larson (sort of)
It may surprise some that the composer and writer of "Rent," who died of an aortic aneurism the day before his opus' opening night, didn't actually have AIDS. Ironically, though, unlike Mercury, his artistic presence in the public sphere has become one of the greatest vehicles for HIV/AIDS awareness.
If you're an undergraduate today, your class was likely struck by "Rent"- fever some time in high school. And while it's pretty rough that Larson just missed the staggering success of his own work, he at least gets the honor of having his "one song before the virus takes hold."
Isaac Asimov
Author of the Foundation novels, along with countless other science fiction books and shorts stories, Asimov was one of the "Big Three" writers of science fiction during his life.
He was one of the most prolific writers of all time, writing or editing over 500 books, and was also a victim of AIDS.
Unfortunately, anti-AIDS prejudice in the early 1990s prevented his case from going public until his wife's version of his autobiography was published 10 years later.
Eazy-E
Though this founding member of N.W.A. was widely regarded as a pioneer of gangsta rap, Eazy-E suffered a rather mundane death from AIDS in 1995. At the time, he was careful to insist that he was absolutely straight-not as a cloaked attempt at homophobia, but rather to make a powerful statement: HIV/AIDS can be caught by anyone, regardless of sexual orientation. "I've learned in the last week that this thing is real and it doesn't discriminate," wrote Eazy-E, in his last message to his fans. "It affects everyone."
Contact John Bailey at
John.C.Bailey@UConn.edu.
Jonathan Larson (sort of)
It may surprise some that the composer and writer of "Rent," who died of an aortic aneurism the day before his opus' opening night, didn't actually have AIDS. Ironically, though, unlike Mercury, his artistic presence in the public sphere has become one of the greatest vehicles for HIV/AIDS awareness.
If you're an undergraduate today, your class was likely struck by "Rent"- fever some time in high school. And while it's pretty rough that Larson just missed the staggering success of his own work, he at least gets the honor of having his "one song before the virus takes hold."
Isaac Asimov
Author of the Foundation novels, along with countless other science fiction books and shorts stories, Asimov was one of the "Big Three" writers of science fiction during his life.
He was one of the most prolific writers of all time, writing or editing over 500 books, and was also a victim of AIDS.
Unfortunately, anti-AIDS prejudice in the early 1990s prevented his case from going public until his wife's version of his autobiography was published 10 years later.
Eazy-E
Though this founding member of N.W.A. was widely regarded as a pioneer of gangsta rap, Eazy-E suffered a rather mundane death from AIDS in 1995. At the time, he was careful to insist that he was absolutely straight-not as a cloaked attempt at homophobia, but rather to make a powerful statement: HIV/AIDS can be caught by anyone, regardless of sexual orientation. "I've learned in the last week that this thing is real and it doesn't discriminate," wrote Eazy-E, in his last message to his fans. "It affects everyone."
Contact John Bailey at
John.C.Bailey@UConn.edu.
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