(CNN) Elizabeth Wurtzel, the author whose 1994 memoir "Prozac Nation" ignited conversations about the then-taboo topic of clinical depression, has died. She was 52.

Wurtzel passed away Tuesday in New York City following a battle with metastatic breast cancer that had spread to her brain, her husband Jim Freed told CNN.

Before memoirs became a literary genre du jour, and before the now-popular confessional style of writing became mainstream, Wurtzel's "Prozac Nation," published when she was just 27, created a sensation.

Not only was the book was a window into a hidden world of depression that resonated with other young woman and people across the country, it also invited widespread criticism and debate for its unapologetic, self-reflective nature.

However, the way Wurtzel discussed Prozac in the book, then a relatively new drug, having been approved by the FDA in 1988, meant it stood as a cultural standard against which future conversations about antidepressants and mental health would be measured.

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