Paul Johnson's collective biography of great Western creators — artists, composers, writers — examining what made them distinctive and what their lives reveal about creative genius.
Johnson's comparative biography method: by juxtaposing dozens of creative figures across centuries (from Chaucer to Warhol), he extracts patterns about the nature of creative genius — the role of hard work vs. inspiration, the creative personality's characteristic vices (vanity, obsession, cruelty), and the relationship between suffering and artistic achievement. Part of Johnson's trilogy with Intellectuals and Heroes.
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