Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of "Prozac Nation," has died

Influential memoirist Elizabeth Wurtzel has died.

A friend confirmed to NPR that the Prozac Nation writer succumbed to breast cancer today at the age of fifty-two.

Wurtzel’s 1994 bestseller about her struggles with depression may not have charmed everyone, but its raw honesty kicked off a national conversation about mental health, says NPR’s Colin Dwyer.

It also opened the door for future frank memoirs, including another from Wurtzel herself — More, Now, Again — this time about drug addiction.

You can read more about Wurtzel in NPR’s obituary.