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Ravaged brilliance
By an Amazon.com customer
Camille ClaudelCamille Claudel
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $6.49
Student of Rodin, and possibly the one who shaped the Rodin style we know. A few years of brilliant art, then decades in sanatoria
Camille Claudel & Rodin: Fateful EncounterCamille Claudel & Rodin: Fateful Encounter by Antoinette Lenormand-Romain
Buy used from: $240.00
Camille's art - we can only wish that she had created more of it and destroyed less.
Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van GoghDear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $2.49
van Gogh - that's all that needs to be said.
Alan Turing: The EnigmaAlan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
Buy used from: $27.95
Heroic WWII cryptographer, created the foundations of computing theory. Hounded into a bizarre suicide for being homosexual.
Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending RemembranceEdgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance by Kenneth Silverman
Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $2.06
Alcoholism, despair, and an early death.
Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (Great Discoveries)Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (Great Discoveries) by Rebecca Goldstein
Buy used from: $5.25
Shook the foundation of mathematical reasoning, and died in fear of his own food.
The Conquering Sword of Conan (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 3)The Conquering Sword of Conan (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 3) by Robert E. Howard
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $8.25
Howard lived with his mother until age 30, then committed suicide. How many of his wonderful stories never had time to be written?
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English DictionaryThe Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Buy used from: $0.01
Literate, eloquent, homicidal, insane. One of the founding contributors to the definitive catalog of the English language.
Georg CantorGeorg Cantor by Joseph W. Dauben
Buy new: $36.60 / Used from: $12.70
What is it about the frontiers of mathematics? He could tame infinity, but not his own mind.
Munch: In His Own WordsMunch: In His Own Words by Poul Erik Tojner
Buy used from: $10.57
In and out of mental hospitals throughout his career. Still, he lived out his life peacefully enough, and left us great treasures.
The Bride of ScienceThe Bride of Science by Benjamin Woolley
Buy used from: $8.41
A destructive gambling habit - not a grand tragedy, but it ruined her life.
Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other WritingsJustine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings by Marquis De Sade
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $4.06
30 years in prison for some terrible derangement. How would you like to have your name turned into a word for perversion?
Wally's World: The Brillant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World's 2nd Best Comic Book ArtistWally's World: The Brillant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World's 2nd Best Comic Book Artist by Steve Starger
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $8.71
Suicide. He arguably had good reason, but some will say that no reason can be good enough. Suicide.
Venus in Furs (Penguin Classics)Venus in Furs (Penguin Classics) by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $4.30
Another man whose name isnow the word for another perversion.
Breakdown Lane, Traveled: An Anthology of Writings on MadnessBreakdown Lane, Traveled: An Anthology of Writings on Madness by Julie Greene
Buy new: $15.95 / Used from: $2.29
Contemporary, not historical. Neither tragedy nor triumph, but an ongoing struggle. She does better, she does worse, and she writes.
A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John NashA Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash by Sylvia Nasar
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $0.01
Not all stories end badly. Brilliant man, years of profound illness, then a return of his sanity and his genius.