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Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History's Great Personalities Hardcover – February 2, 2016

by Claudia Kalb (Author)

4.3 619 ratings

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Was Andy Warhol a hoarder? Did Einstein have autism? Was Frank Lloyd Wright a narcissist? In this surprising, inventive, and meticulously researched look at the evolution of mental health, acclaimed health and science journalist Claudia Kalb gives readers a glimpse into the lives of high-profile historic figures through the lens of modern psychology, weaving groundbreaking research into biographical narratives that are deeply embedded in our culture. From Marilyn Monroe's borderline personality disorder to Charles Darwin's anxiety, Kalb provides compelling insight into a broad range of maladies, using historical records and interviews with leading mental health experts, biographers, sociologists, and other specialists. Packed with intriguing revelations, this smart narrative brings a new perspective to one of the hottest new topics in today's cultural conversation.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Author Claudia Kalb] fruitfully employs diverse sources, including psychology studies and published biographies, to tell the undeniably fascinating stories of her subjects. This is an informative compilation and it’s certain to provide readers with fascinating stories to share about an array of famous names.”—Publishers Weekly

"Kalb’s well-written exercise in applying modern psychiatric theory to historical figures, from Marilyn Monroe to Albert Einstein to Charles Darwin, certainly makes for some very entertaining armchair speculation." —Booklist, starred review

"With keen insight and a writerly flair, Claudia Kalb, one of the nations’s pre-eminent science journalists, has written a book that is at once profound and a great deal of fun. She takes us on an engrossing and original journey into the minds (and, yes, the madnesses) of some of history's most intriguing figures. Kalb explores nothing less than the mysteries of genius and of individuality." —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of American Lion

“A brilliant and fascinating journey into the perils that so often accompany genius. Spell-binding.” —Edward Hallowell, M.D., co-author of Driven to Distraction

“With a sharp eye but forgiving, deep-seated sense of humanity, Claudia Kalb takes us into the netherworld where emotions make (and break) extraordinary figures from Marilyn Monroe to Albert Einstein. Compelling, intriguing, surprising and fun.” —Evan Thomas, author of Richard Nixon: A Man Divided

“Claudia Kalb uses insights about the great men and women of history to animate today’s most gripping mental health headlines … A wonderful book.” —Robin Marantz Henig, New York Times Magazine contributing writer and President, National Association of Science Writers

“Ms. Kalb…gently reframes the narratives of seemingly familiar but quirky celebrities and raises important questions to popular attitudes towards mental health.”-Forbes.com

“Claudia Kalb provides compelling insight into the fine line between mental illness and greatness and creativity that plagued some of history’s most celebrated icons.” –Caroline Howe for Dailymail.com

“While not a business book per se, her [Kalb’s] work does have relevance as more people are becoming aware of mental illness as a workplace issue.”-Harvard Business Review

“…mixing celebrity stories with a psychological analysis of their personalities… I found this to be a great read.” –Celebrity Books

“Kalb doesn’t just look at the possible positive effect of mental illness on creativity... She also examines the ways psychological disturbances can tragically cut short creative endeavors.”-BookPage

About the Author

CLAUDIA KALB, an award-winning journalist who reports on a wide variety of health and science topics, is known for combining serious reporting with engaging, accessible writing. A former senior writer at Newsweek who has contributed to Smithsonian and Scientific American, Kalb has penned hundreds of features on topics ranging from depression and PTSD to painkiller addiction and the surge in drugs used to treat ADHD. She is now a freelance writer and editor.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ National Geographic; First Edition (February 2, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1426214669
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1426214660
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #957,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #248 in Medical Psychology History
- #306 in Popular Psychology History
- #2,152 in Medical Professional Biographies

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4.3 619 ratings

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Claudia Kalb

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Claudia Kalb is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist who writes about science, psychology, and human behavior. She is the author of the new book, Spark: How Genius Ignites, From Child Prodigies to Late Bloomers (National Geographic Books: April 27, 2021). Claudia’s first book, Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities, was published in 2016. Her articles have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Newsweek, and numerous other publications. Claudia’s most recent work includes a series of National Geographic cover stories on the science and origins of genius: “What Makes a Genius," “How Picasso’s Journey from Prodigy to Icon Revealed a Genius," and “Why Leonardo da Vinci’s Brilliance Endures, 500 Years After His Death."

Claudia has been interviewed on CBS This Morning, NPR's Weekend Edition, CNN, MSNBC, BookTV, and other television and radio outlets. She has talked about her work at professional and educational gatherings across the U.S.and actively participates in book festivals, book tours, and book clubs.

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4.3 out of 5

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Joseph J. Truncale

A fascinating insight into some of history's most interesting people.

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2023

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When one is a voracious reader and is curious about topics from A to Z, life remains a beautiful and many times an exciting place even if one is well into their senior years. I have read, studied and written reviews on thousands of books over the last seven plus decades, and I am still seeking unusual and new books to read.

This is why when I saw this fascinating 320-page hardcover book on Amazon, (Andy Warhol was a hoarder: Inside the minds of history’s great personalities), I just had to purchase it.
What makes this excellent book so unique is that it is about some of the most interesting people who ever lived. As human beings we are all born with different personalities, interests, skills, abilities. We all have unusual habits and do things that some may find strange; however, this is what makes life such a joy. We should embrace our differences in our personalities, the good, the bad, the ugly and the amusing.

This is why I love this kind of book. This book explores subject areas not always mentioned in some biographies. The author is a skilled and knowledgeable researcher who writes about twelve historically interesting individuals. They include Marilyn Monroe, Howard Hughes, Andy Warhol, Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Christine Jorgensen, Frank Lloyd Wright, Betty Ford, Charles Darwin, George Gershwin, Fyodor Dostoevsky and my favorite Albert Einstein.

This book is both entertaining and educational. If you are interested in learning things about famous people you never knew before, you should definitely check out this book.
Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Martial Art and Warrior Haiku and Senryu).

One person found this helpful

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Sally Pink Reviews

Engrossing and Insightful

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2016

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Kalb paints a picture of how mental illness has influenced some of the greatest personalities in history. Topics explored: Did Lincoln suffer from depression? Was Einstein on the autistic spectrum? Did George Gershwin have ADHD? There's also a look at Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, and Betty Ford. Many aspects of the human psyche are explored including OCD, hoarding, and transgender.

Each story discusses the historical surrounding of the celebrity's life, then Kalb makes her case for why that person had a mental health condition. Kalb gives the reader a fascinating look into what made some of history's most poignant characters tick.

Kalb's writing style is easy to read and engages the reader. Her tone is genuine and sincere. How Andy Warhol hid his hoarding behavior was the story that surprised me the most. Betty Ford's story was the one that touched me the most as it's a struggle many can identify with.

The book takes a psychological look at the unique people who have touched our lives. It's, fascinating, riveting, and engrossing. I highly recommend this book.

6 people found this helpful

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Bill Hughes

in a Delightful Read, Author Puts 12 Celebrities on a Couch

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019

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Claudia Kalb has written a delightful book. She takes twelve historical figures and examines their colorful lives, via the lens of modern psychology. Her purpose was to find out what made them tick, with their mental health issues front and center. It made for a very entertaining, interesting read.

The title of the book is “Andy Warhol was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities.”

First up for Kalb’s couch is that talented boy-oh himself from Pittsburgh and environs - Andy Warhol. In fact the title of the book says it all. Warhol was a notorious hoarder of epic proportions. He packed his Manhattan home with so much stuff you had “to climb over things to get around.”

The pop artist collected Picassos and expensive furniture, but also junk mail, old checks and outdated catalogs. Supposedly, one of Warhol’s cronies said to him: “I’m going to commit suicide!” Warhol’s response: “Can I have your watch!”

Born poor, and sickly as a child, Warhol was very lonely growing up. His father died when he was thirteen. He compensated for his situation by acquiring an extreme passion for stuff.

This included, Kalb underscored, Warhol also amassing an entourage of hanger-ons. Underneath, however, he was a loner, who lived home with his mother.

Kalb reported how on Good Friday, April, 1981, he noted in his diary- “Went home lonely and despondent because nobody loves me and it’s Easter, and I cried.”

“Hoarding,” Kalb concluded, “may provide comfort to those who feel neglected.” Warhol, unfortunately, was “Exhibit A” of that psyche malady. It’s safe, however, to say that he had gained more than his “fifteen minutes of fame” during his achievement-filled lifetime. Warhol died at age fifty-eight of a heart attack.

Next up for examination by the author is one of Mother Russia’s greatest literary sons - Fyodor Dostoevsky. His works included the magisterial “The Idiot,” “Crime and Punishment,” “The Gambler,” “Poor Folk,” “The House of the Dead,” “Notes from Underground” and my personal fave, “The Brothers Karamazov.”

Dostoevsky could not walk away from a gambling table, no matter how far he was ahead. He could convince himself “that he knew how to beat the system, bet again, lose, sink deeper into the red.”

According to the latest psychological research, the author found Dostoevsky was suffering from a “mental disorder.” Compulsive gambling strikes an area of the brain that “is similar to those activated by addictive drugs.”

From his youngest adult days, Dostoevsky
lived beyond his means. At the age of 24 years, he had risen to “literary acclaim,” but he told his brother he didn’t have “a kopeck to his name.” He was involved in politics, but in the days of the Czar that was a very risky business. He was arrested for alleged political crimes and subjected to a mock execution. Dostoevsky ended up serving four years in a prison camp in Siberia.

Upon his return to society, his career continued to flourish as did his love of the roulette wheel. Sickly, and in his early fifties, Dostoevsky was also marred in debt, nevertheless he married for the second time. Kalb concluded his excessive gambling and erratic
Iifestyle was a “form of self-inflicted punishment.”

When Dostoevsky died at age of 59, the government offered to pay his funeral expenses. The widow turned it down saying that it was “a moral obligation” of his family to take care of that responsibility. Later, she did accept a lifetime pension from the government to honor his “contributions to Russian literature.”

Also coming under Kalb’s microscope were: Marilyn Monroe, Howard Hughes, Princess Diana, Christine Jorgensen, Frank Lloyd Wright, Betty Ford, Charles Darwin, George Darwin, George Gershwin, Albert Einstein and one of my favorite presidents - Abraham Lincoln.

I will finish my review of Kalb’s tome by saying a few words about her analysis of Lincoln. If any public figure deserved a huge monument in Washington, DC, it was this Kentucky-born son of a farmer.

His many portraits says it all. Lincoln was a very depressed man, a victim of a “terrible melancholy.”
The author reported that he once told a colleague that when he was alone, “he never dared to carry a knife in his pocket.”

Sadly, Lincoln’s mother died young and it had a telling effect on him. His father was indifferent to his son’s scholarly aspirations.

Despite all the heavy mental package, Lincoln went on to become one of our greatest presidents; freeing the slaves, and leading the young and divided nation to victory in the Civil War before being murdered, more likely than not, by a conspiracy hatched in London, England. See, “Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin and the Plot to Assassination Lincoln,” by John C. Fazio.

With respect to this book, the illustrations of the 12 personalities by Allison Farris are all first-rate and add to its appeal.

Finally, I am giving Kalb’s book five stars and recommending readers put it on their “must read” list.

5 people found this helpful

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Jaimie L. Odell

Interesting read

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2018

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I enjoy reading medical books. It was interesting to read opinions on these 12 historical figures. This is not factual as these figures were not diagnosed in life but it’s interesting to hear that these people in their time may have had some of the mental health issues we have today.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Awesome

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2024

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Such an insightful book and very well written will look for other books by this author
Very innovative enjoyable and lively

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DFarris

A very interesting read on how many of our celebrities ...

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2016

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A very interesting read on how many of our celebrities (and most likely all of us) suffer from some sort of mental disorder to some degree or another. The issue is how we deal with it and maximize its strengths, and recognize and address its weaknesses. Read it straight through.

3 people found this helpful

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Walter Ortega

Me gusto!

Reviewed in Mexico on May 11, 2022

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De lectura ligera para personas que no son unos devoradores de libros.

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GBR

Used Old Book

Reviewed in India on October 28, 2021

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Old books usually give you a nostalgic feeling but omg not when you pay a whopping 1399 rupees, only to be sent an used, filthy, torn and not sure where exactly the book has been? Well one thing that this pandemic has thought us is hygeine, clearly Amazon products have a long way to go in terms of ensuring safety. As you can see the book I received not only was damaged but the book itself was delivered where the package was open, I WONDER IF THEY WERE WAY TOO INTERESTED IN THE BOOK! WELL I HAVE OPTED FOR REFUND LETS SEE! PLEASE BE CAREFUL