Did Albert Ein­stein have autism? Was Abra­ham Lin­coln clin­i­cal­ly depressed? What made Dar­win so anx­ious? In Andy Warhol Was a Hoard­er, Clau­dia Kalb delves into the minds of his­to­ry’s most cel­e­brat­ed icons. Kalb uses his­tor­i­cal records and inter­views with lead­ing psy­chi­atric experts to metic­u­lous­ly assess the men­tal health of twelve indi­vid­u­als, from Ein­stein, Lin­coln and Dar­win to Fyo­dor Dos­to­evsky, Princess Diana and Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe. Kalb’s nuanced analy­sis probes the intri­ca­cies of the brain and human behav­ior, weav­ing bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion with today’s cut­ting-edge sci­ence to reveal both the tor­ments and tri­umphs of these extra­or­di­nary fig­ures.

Sev­er­al of the indi­vid­u­als pro­filed were Jew­ish and each had unique ties to the reli­gion. Ein­stein was raised in a sec­u­lar home in Ger­many and was lat­er invit­ed to be pres­i­dent of Israel; George Gersh­win grew up in the immi­grant streets of New York City and fre­quent­ed Yid­dish the­aters; Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe con­vert­ed to Judaism when she mar­ried Arthur Miller. Although not the book’s focus, these Jew­ish themes will be fea­tured in dis­cus­sions with Jew­ish audiences.