Several months ago, Tom Swift, author of Chief Bender’s Burden, recommended Lincoln’s Melancholy (By Joshua Wolf Shenk) to me.
River City Books: Price May Alleviate the Blues
It’s a portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s life struggle with depression…..Years of copious research resulted in an engrossing, nuanced profile that reveals the depression that profoundly influenced Lincoln’s life and character — an element of the great president’s makeup that may very well have been the most important one.
Here is some audio: NPR, All Things Considered: Exploring Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Melancholy’
I finished reading this book two or three days ago. It is definitely a keeper. I would like to write more about it and what it specifically meant to me, but I’m still absorbing some of it. No, actually, more truthfully, I’m just slightly sleep-deprived right now and in a little pain from typing. I’d rather write about it when I’m not distracted by pain and more clear-headed. Here is an excerpt though, from Chapter 2:
The big difference is that today we often hear that the disease of depression is entirely distinct from the ordinary experience of being sad or in the dumps. But in the nineteenth-century conception of melancholy, these were part of the same overall picture. A person with a melancholy temperament had been fated with both an awful burden and what Byron called “a fearful gift.” The burden was a sadness and despair that could tip into a state of disease. But the gift was a capacity for depth, wisdom — even genius.
Thank you, Tom Swift, for recommending a book that will be one of the most influential in my life.
This book is in the SELCO catalog, so can be requested and picked up at the Northfield Public Library
Andy Alt
Meander
