2. Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Ryunosuke or the Dragon Son had an inclination towards reading and writing right from his childhood. He is the pioneer of Japanese short stories as he wrote more than 150 short stories during his short life of 35 years. However, his work mainly highlighted the dark side of human nature. The writings were based on macabre and psychological disorders. In the last years that he lived, he suffered from severe depression, paranoia and visual hallucinations. In the end he claimed his life by having an overdose of Veronal.