Writers and addicts …

… David Foster Wallace and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Had a Lot in Common — Helen Rittelmeyer | A First Things Blog. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The last and most important similarity between DFW and STC is that they both became famous too early, before their thinking was fully formed. Early fame is always an invitation to drug addiction, but early literary fame more so than other kinds. On top of the basic child-star problem—which is essentially that you’ve satisfied your desire to be extraordinary and foreclosed the possibility of being ordinary, leaving nothing left but to kill time as efficiently as possible until you drop dead—early literary fame involves the added burden of guilt.