Depression

An inordinate number of high achievers suffer from depression and mental illness.

That someone like Lincoln had a life so full of incredible accomplishments and an unfailing moral compass, and yet according to his friends "dripped sadness" amazes me.

Same with Churchill, who guided Britain through one of its darkest periods with an incredible willpower despite suffering from acute depression.

This is a tribute to the determination and discipline of these individuals.

A portrait of Winston Churchill, ink on paper.
Illustrated portrait of Guy de Maupassant with his creature The Horla.
Ernest Hemingway, depicted in a black and white ink portrait.
The painter Edward Hopper, an illustrated portrait.
An ink drawing of Beaudelaire, the famous poet.
Franz Kafka, portrayed in a black and white drawing
A graphic portrait of Abraham Lincoln, in black ink on paper.
The fantasy writer H. P. Lovecraft, an illustrated portrait.
A portrait, drawing of Mark Twain with his biography.
A short biography and portrait of the painter Georgia O'Keeffe
Portrait in black and white of Edgar Allan Poe and his raven

Further reading

Churchill: there are many great biographies out there, one in particular is the small but excellent Winston Churchill, a Life by John Keegan. Read also Churchill’s speeches.  

Lincoln: read his most famous speech; The Gettysburg Address. Visit his memorial in Washington, DC.

Maupassant: read his short story The Horla.

Hopper: check out his most famous painting, Nighthawks.

Lovecraft: read his stories The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Madness.

Beaudelaire : read Les Fleurs du Mal

Kafka : read The Metamorphosis and The Judgement

O’Keeffe: check out her paintings of flowers.

Hemingway: read The Old man and The Sea, as well as his short stories.

Poe: read The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of The House of Usher, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Twain: read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

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