He was an alcoholic and abusive to his wife Joy Davidman, as well as to their children. Joy eventually fled to England with their children, where she conducted a long-term love affair with the author C.S. Lewis, whom she eventually married (their story was told in the film Shadowlands (1993)).
In 1962 he committed suicide in a run-down hotel room in New York,
where he had registered under the name "Asa Kimball, of Baltimore." The
only tribute paid to him in the New York Times came from the bridge
columnist.