Lincoln, depression, and greatness: the story of a man who joined great pain and great power.(Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness)(Book review)

From: The Saturday Evening Post | Date: May 1, 2006 | Copyright information

Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk, 350 pages, Houghton Mifflin Company, $25.00

"Why is it that all men who have become outstanding in philosophy, statesmanship, poetry or the arts are melancholic?" the fourth century B.C. philosopher Aristotle asked. To make his point, he cited a long list of famous melancholics, including Plato and Socrates. Had Aristotle lived in a later millennium, he might well have included another great man on his list, Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln's dismally low spirits, well ...

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