Famous People with Bipolar Disease

People with bipolar disease and major depression can take some solace in the highly intelligent, creative artists, leaders, philosophers, writers and politicians who have been or have been diagnosed with either of the above diseases.

There is evidence that these diseases go back to the Greek playwright, Aeschylus who, born in 525 B.C., is known as the Father of Tragedy. In his plays, he is equivocal about whether major depression is hereditary or not. His plays represent dark, gothic tales of major depression. It is from his most famous play, Agamemnon, that the quote “He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair,

A stunning and disquieting short memoir by William Styron (author of Sophie’s Choice) is almost too uncomfortable to recommend to one experiencing their first major depression. However, Darkness Visible, A Memoir of Madness could be valuable reading for someone dealing with someone they love who suffers from depression.

Notable others and their biographies include the following:

– Benjamin Franklin – The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, H.W. Brands. 2000

– Douglas MacArthur – American Caesar, William Manchester, 1978

– T.E. Lawrence – Lawrence & the Arabian Adventure, Robert Graves, 1928

– Virginia Woolf – A Writers Diary, Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf, edited by Leonard Woolf (her husband) 1953.

– Virginia Woolf – Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work, Louise DeSalvo, 1989

– Rebecca West (the early twentieth century British author) – A Life, Victoria Glendinning. 1987

– William R. Hearst – Citizen Hearst by W.A. Swanberg, 1961

– Franklin Delano Roosevelt – The Privileged Life of and Radical Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, by H.W. Brands, 2008

– Edward Teller – Teller’s War; The Top Secret Story Behind the Star Wars Deception, William j. Broad, 1992

– Earnest Hemingway – Hemingway, Kenneth S. Lynn, 1987
– Winston Churchill – The Last Lion, Defender of the Throne, William Manchester and Paul Reid, 2012

– John Nash – A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash, Sylvia Nasir, 1998

– Woodrow Wilson – Dead Wake, The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson, 2015.