Author will discuss President Lincoln’s depression

He’s considered one America’s greatest leaders, waging battles with separatists, slave-owners and rebels. But few people know about one of Abraham Lincoln’s more personal fights: depression.

Lincoln suffered from mental illness and used his disability to draw enormous strength during the most difficult days of the Civil War, historian Joshua Wolf Shenk said.

Tonight Shenk will be at the Newport Beach Library to discuss his new book “Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness.” The discussion begins at 7 p.m. at the Central Library Friends Meeting Room, 1000 Avocado Ave.

Shenk will discuss how Lincoln suffered from depression in his 20s and 30s and coped with illness using drugs, as well as humor, spirituality and poetry.