Synopsis
Discover the fascinating and often surprising daily rituals of history's greatest minds.
Benjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths, and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but Gertrude Stein could never write for more than thirty minutes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in gin-fuelled bursts – he believed alcohol was essential to his creative process.
From Marx to Murakami and Beethoven to Bacon, Daily Rituals presents the working routines of more than 160 of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived. Whether by amphetamines or alcohol, headstand or boxing, these creative geniuses made time and got to work.
Featuring photographs of writers and artists at work, and filled with fascinating insights on the mechanics of genius and entertaining stories of the personalities behind it, Daily Rituals is an irresistibly addictive and utterly inspiring exploration of creativity and the creative process.
Details
11 June 2020
9781529059960Reviews
I just can't recommend this book enoughLena Dunham
A trove of entertaining anecdote and thought-provoking comparisonToby Lichtig, Daily Telegraph
A chance to see what great lives look like when the triumphs, dramas, disruptions and divorces have been all but boiled away. It will fascinate anyone who wonders how a day might best be spent, especially those who have wondered of their artistic heroes, as a baffled Colette once did of George Sand: how the devil did they manage?Guardian
Utterly fascinatingDaisy Goodwin, Sunday Times
