Born to Run: Biography

Springsteen concedes that a thread of mental health conditions runs through his Irish side. His father is emotionally distant and sees in his son the “soft” qualities that he despises in himself. When Springsteen is 12, his sister Pam is born, and young Bruce is an enthusiastic caretaker. This joy, however, is tempered by tragedy when his grandmother dies.

When Springsteen is 16, his father exhibits signs of a mental health condition, and his sister Virginia becomes pregnant and drops out of school. His song “The River” honors Virginia and her husband, Mickey.

From his unheated bedroom, young Springsteen listens to his mother preparing for work as a legal secretary. He’s fascinated by the important business at her office (and how the other secretaries heap attention on him). Born into an upper middle-class family, she married into “near poverty” and now essentially raises the family alone while his father declines because of alcoholism and a mental health condition. She encourages her son’s artistic endeavors and protects him from her husband’s fits of rage. Springsteen returns the favor one night, clubbing his father with a baseball bat during an intense argument between his parents. Despite their starkly different personalities, however, they love each other, and Springsteen is confident that he’ll never leave her.