The passing of Steve Jobs and the hoopla over it has me thinking of the stuff I read about him in Pirates of Silicon Valley and a couple of articles from former employers over the years. All acknowledge his brilliants, his vision, his general greatness and work ethic, just as all the obits and mournfests on TV are doing, but he had a reputation, one that is at least partly substantiated by evidence, of being an unqualified asshole. He was verbally abusive, narcissistic, petty, a tyrant to work for, prone to irrational outbursts and tirades at any or no provocation; he denied the paternity of his own daughter and even swore under oath he was sterile rather than pay support for her or her mother even as he named the computer he was working on in her honor (LISA). There are numerous accounts of him publicly screaming at and insulting and humiliating employees who were working 90 hour weeks, particularly if he caught them taking catnaps and the like; at least a couple of employees over the years snapped and physically assaulted him.

By most accounts he mellowed in later years. He acknowledged his illegitimate daughter and incorporated her into his legitimate family, but he could still be petty or have an occasional tantrum.

But, history forgives the geniuses. Those of us who didn’t know them personally don’t remember them for their friendship after all.

So who are some other people that history would consider “Great” due to their importance or their contributions, but who the record would seem to indicate were, in addition to doing truly great things, total assholes?

A few that come to mind:

Thomas Edison- he was almost uniformly hated by the people who knew him including his children. He was an iron handed businessman who crushed competitors’ life work without a moment of hesitation or remorse. He routinely verbally abused his employees and his wives (not to imply he was a polygamist- he just happened to marry twice) in public- both wives and his son developed serious substance abuse problems. His fights with/crushing of Tesla are particularly famous.

Speaking of,

Nikola Tesla- perhaps not so much a-hole as just impossible to work with because he was so damned crazy. He had severe OCD of course, but while he couldn’t help the condition it made him impossible to live or work with: everything had to be divisible by three or nine, a woman wearing earrings and or pearls (and God forbid pearl earrings) would make him unable to concentrate with a possible hissy fit, and just generally anti-social to the 3rd/6th/9th degree. Also had some truly weird beliefs, like his belief that he was receiving instructions from extraterrestrial civilizations.

Isaac Newton- one of the most hated professors in the history of Cambridge, famous for delivering his lectures even if no students attended. An intolerant fanatic not only in his religious views but in his opinions of his own infallibility. Incredibly vain intellectually to the point of blistering obsessive attacks on people he viewed as competition (Leibniz and Hooke especially- his comment to Hooke “If I have seen a little further [than you] it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants” is believed by some biographers to have been a bitchy slam at the fact that Hooke was extremely short (less than 5’0) and humpbacked. Also misogynistic and proud of the fact he died a virgin.

Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson- also extremely OCD, and like Newton a hated lecturer whose students (at least per very old story) once plotted to kill him. He had all kinds of odd beliefs, a couple of which were eccentric for the time but we now know have merit (daily bathing and eating lots of citrus for example) but many of which were just weird: sitting down only when in the saddle or when (to quote Sheldon Cooper) it was a non-negotiable social construct, keeping his arms raised as much as possible to balance the blood flow, numerous daily rituals, etc… He was racist even by 1860 Virginia standards, and near fanatically religious.

Robert F. Kennedy- I don’t think I’ve ever read anything about RFK that didn’t say, in word or in essence, that he was a two-faced egotistical entitled asshole who would gladly throw anybody under the bus, regardless of what they had done for him, the second they became a liability. Just basically a ruthless and utterly selfish individual, and of course a blatant womanizer even as he promoted himself as the ultimate family man due to his eternally pregnant wife.

Literary greats seem often to have been self absorbed assholes. The number of them who were womanizing deadbeat and or absentee dads alone seems endless: Ezra Pound, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Norman Mailer, etc…

Who are some other ‘great genius/horrible person’ nominees?