A study of the will to die and the will to live, The Envelope of Suicides explores a collection of newspaper stories from 1941 to 1948 of people in New Britain, Connecticut, who tried to end their lives. These are stories of the uniquely human struggles of long-forgotten people, and together they create a social history of the town and a fractured snapshot of a world at war.
My grandfather, a refugee from Persia who became the first psychiatrist in New Britain, collected these stories. He also studied records from the local morgue going back to the 20s. In all, he worked on the problem of suicide for 15 years before he dropped it for unknown reasons. He never spoke to anyone in the family about any of this.
One of the 124 stories in the envelope.
The Envelope of Suicides is now a completed nonfiction manuscript, though it’s taken other forms along the way. In my theatrical productions called From the Envelope of Suicides, I explored many of these stories and what they bring forth, and this exploration has taken a few different (and complementary) forms. There’s a limited-run scripted podcast, and there have been two runs of different live shows in Portland, Oregon, in 2016 and 2018.
The run in November 2018 was called The Art of Blushing and the Lazarus Complex. It was a two-part show with four actors, projections and a live score by three-fourths of the band Months, all produced by Hand2Mouth Theatre.
Follow @benmoorad on Instagram to see images from my research for the book.
Promotional map of New Britain -- the setting of this project -- from the 1940s.