Customer Reviews

Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney (P.S.)

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This is a companion volume to Intellectuals (first published in 1988) in which Johnson focuses on a number of prominent as well as diverse intellectuals who include Rousseau, Shelley, Ibsen, Brecht, and Sartre. He proceeds in the same manner in Creators with his focus on an equally diverse group whose members include Chaucer, Bach, Austen, Eliot, and in Chapter 14, Picasso and Disney. Most of those who have already read one or more of Johnson's other works probably disagree with several of his opinions but no one can (or at least should) question the scope and depth of his erudition. Of course, the appeal and value of this book will depend almost entirely on each reader's own interests but I presume to suggest that this book be read in its entirety because several lesser known people (A.W.N. Pugin and Viollet-le-Duc, for example) are far more interesting than I (at least) anticipated.

The title of the first chapter (i.e. "The Anatomy of Creative Courage") could well have served as the book's subtitle. Each of the 17 whom Johnson rigorously examines demonstrated throughout their lives and careers extraordinary courage when pursuing their visions despite all manner of barriers. "What can be said is that creation is always difficult. If it is worth doing at all, we can be sure it is hard to do. I cannot think of any instance in which it is accurate, let along fair, to use the word `facile.'" Johnson also suggests that "courage and creativity are linked, for all creation requires intellectual courage." Also when overcoming physical disabilities, as well as severe poverty, alienation, voluntary or involuntary isolation (often resulting in severe loneliness), and constant awareness of hardships which one's loved ones have been forced to share and endure. "All the same," Johnson concludes, "creation is a marvelous business, and people who create at the highest level lead a privileged life, however arduous and difficult it may be. An interesting life, too, full of peculiar aspects and strange satisfactions. That is the message of this book."

Please keep in mind that this volume does not consist of 17 mini-biographies, although there is a wealth of biographical information provided. Nor is it a definitive critical analysis of what each of the subjects created, although their major achievements are acknowledged. Nor is it a cultural history, although Johnson briefly but deftly correlates a number of cross-generational themes. Granted, he could well have devoted an additional chapter to each of several others such as Vermeer, Mozart, Richard Wagner, Caravaggio, Mary Cassatt, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Emily Dickinson. (He does briefly discuss them in the first chapter.) I think it is important to realize what this book is not so that it can be properly understood and appreciated for what it is: what an uncommonly intelligent, eloquent, and erudite historian has found most interesting and informative in the lives and careers of 17 creators. "Creativity, I believe, is inherent in all of us. We are the progeny of almighty God...He created the universe, and those who inhabit it; and in creating us, he made us in his own image, so that his personality and capacities, however feebly, are reflected in our minds, bodies, and immortal spirits. So we are, by our nature, creators as well...and [because ] we are all made in God's image, there is creativity in all of us, and the only problem is how to bring it out. A farmer is creative -- none more so -- and so is a shoemaker."

I presume to suggest, however, paraphrasing George Orwell, that all human beings are creative but some are more creative than others.

There is a long line of books of lives and this is a quite interesting contribution to the genre. These kinds of books are not meant to be biographies as we know them today. This book has some points to make about the creative personality in its various manifestations over several centuries in many of the arts in the West. Yes, if you read a few dozen biographies you could get more in depth on each of the figures discussed here, but that would be a different project than Paul Johnson is after here.

The author wants us to see that the creative personality has certain tendencies, needs, and that society gains from this kind of individual even if there are also costs to those around him or her. There is also a vast range of personality. Some are healthy and vastly productive, others have a more restricted output, but still their contribution is large. Others have a toxic personality and then there is a full range in between. The real point here is to use these brief examinations of these creative artists to illustrate rather than to explain or provide some undergirding theory.

The chapters are arranged in a largely chronological order. This has some advantages in discussing artistic trends over time. Johnson includes authors and poets such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Hugo, Twain, and Eliot, but Dickens, the Br?ntes, and many other writers are discussed along the way as well. There are visual artists and architects beginning with D?rer, Turner, Hokusai, Pugin, le Duc, Tiffany, Picasso, and Disney. He also includes fashion designers Balenciaga and Dior with quite convincing observations for their inclusion.

Bach is the only musician given a chapter heading, but many other musicians are discussed along with Bach in his chapter. That is really the way each chapter is constructed. Each artist is discussed in a larger context, which requires discussion of other artists. For example, in discussing Jane Austen, many other women who managed to become artists in the face of huge social pressure are discussed to provide a richer context for Austen.

The book opens with a discussion of the anatomy of creative courage. This theme of courage to create and the way that courage is manifested in the lives of each of these artists is the unifying theme of the book, but there are other threads that we follow as well. We learn about the role of families in the lives of these artists (variously important), their access to professional training (not as important as you might expect), what a sympathetic or hostile social environment does to creativity (might make producing more difficult, but does not stop the most determined), what social change does (destroyed most of Tiffany's work and makes us poorer, and forced Balenciaga into a lonely retirement), and the differences between fine and fashion art and how that change occurred.

The last chapter discusses creativity in science and the use of metaphor in creation.

I think this is a very interesting, entertaining, and useful read. It is not a biography of each artist and should not be judged as such. This book has a different purpose and I think meets that purpose well. If you are an expert on any of the creators you will certainly judge what Johnson should have included differently than the author. However, you would be thinking as a biographer rather than trying to make the points Johnson is trying to make as a historian.

I also enjoyed Johnson's many personal observations and the anecdotes from more modern times with creators he actually met and some that he knew.

Enjoy!

If you've never read about the work and lives of these creators, you will like this book better than I did. For the most part, Mr. Johnson provides superficial details and makes very general judgments. If you read a standard biography of any of these people, you'll be more satisfied than with this book. But this book may give you an overview to find out which people you want to read more about.

For me, the most interesting parts came in the descriptions of Chaucer, Durer, Bach, Cassatt and Wagner. Who knew that Wagner used to beg money from people so he could live in luxury? Otherwise, he apparently had trouble writing operas. The characterization of Chaucer's contributions to language is inspired and intriguing. The book is filled with other similar dribs and drabs of fascinating details from the lives of monumental creators in the arts.

If you want to learn about how to be a creator, look elsewhere. This book is primarily historical and biographical rather than focused on the psychology and methodology of creativity.

If you ever read the syndicated political columns of William F. Buckley, the premier American literary conservative of his era, you undoubtedly recall that once in each effort he threw in an obscure vocabulary word, precisely used by him, never encountered by his readers before. It was educational, if you had a dictionary handy, but because this quirk of his was used judiciously, (one might say conservatively), it was forgiven. Mr. Johnson, obviously a fine scholar with a great education, who has rubbed shoulders with some of the best thinkers of the 20th century, has the Buckley flaw, but to a fault. It seemed that a word or a foreign phrase which baffled me popped up 300 times. I have four years of college and I'm not inexperienced in the world at age 63, (as of yesterday) but I found this word-dropping to be offensive. The one time I ever saw Bill Buckley in person, he did his trick in a way that also offended me: The week of Martin Luther King's murder I saw Buckley in a debate on civil rights with Julian Bond at Vanderbilt University, and Buckley, referring to the assassination, called it a "regicide" which was too cute by half, and should have been resisted by such a disciplined man. Johnson almost goes that far as well. One learns a great deal about the famous and the relatively famous thinkers and creators he profiles between these covers, but his prose style is cumbersome, and his attitude tedious. It took me weeks to read this, because I was only content with putting up with the book for four or five pages at a sitting. I know a lot more about the subjects of this volume now, but I also know a lot more about its author, and that makes me little interested in his other works.

The author of "Creators", the historian-cum-journalist Paul Johnson, identifies the reasons why people such as Shakespeare, Bach, Turner, Pugin, Balenciaga ,Walt Disney and a few others, have been so outstanding and prolific in their respective arts and crafts. Talent of course is a necessary requisite but is not enough. All those people were hardworking and loved their work. This love for their craft in turn led them not to be content with anything less than perfection. Besides, they were all innovators in their own manner: always searching for new ideas and novel ways of achieving the highest standards in their work.

The author devotes a chapter to each of these creators. There are all sorts of anecdotes illustrating their mastery. For example, Bach reached such heights at composing music for organ that the best organ makers asked him for advice as to how to build organs so that they could produce more beautiful sounds. Pugin died young at 41 but by then he had built several cathedrals and the Houses of Parliament -he made such good use of his time. Balenciaga not only made women look gorgeous in the dresses he designed and produced for them, but also made them feel comfortable in those dresses. T. S. Eliot was so shy that he needed a stimulating alcoholic drink to be able to start writing poetry. Picasso led modern art on a path away from nature while Disney sought his inspiration in nature, which he "surrealized" (to use a word coined by Johnson) in his films: the author guesses at the tendency that will have the last word.

The book is written with an elegant prose which is suffused with Johnson's incomparable knowledge of history and a flair for the revealing anecdote which only a seasoned journalist could have possibly recorded. "Creators" is thus well worth reading.

A superb companion to Johnson's outstanding Intellectuals. The author writes in the preface that he is also preparing a book on heroes, which would complete a fine trilogy. The two best sections of the current book in my opinion, are those on Chaucer and T.S. Eliot (a man, I'm delighted to find, enjoyed his martinis and may have relied on them to inspire his verse). The chapter on Walt Disney is also superb (though what artist would not look good compared side by side with the utterly odious and over-rated Picasso). Johnson is here pre-occupied by what drives creative people to produce their work. Not all of his subjects are geniuses (Victor Hugo, it is plain, was a hypocritical idiot), and some (as he rightly points out in the case of Picasso) were evil. But all were driven. And this drive, as explored in each and every case in the book, is what makes this offering so enjoyable.

In a colleague's enewsletter last month, he wrote that creativity is "the new leadership competency." Then quoting from another publication, he added: "According to an IBM Institute for Business Value survey, today's CEOs identify `creativity' as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future. IBM Sr. VP Frank Kern says, `That's creativity--not operational effectiveness, influence, or even dedication. Coming out of the worst economic downturn in their professional lifetimes, when managerial discipline and rigor ruled the day, this indicates a remarkable shift in attitude.'"

And Harvey Mackay, envelope baron, business author and newspaper columnist ("Lessons on Leadership") recently wondered what it would be like "if you could turn on creativity like you start a car." Of his nine suggestions for revving up creativity, he challenged leaders to "read something totally different than usual." He added, "Too often, we find ourselves looking at the same newspapers, trade publications, blogs and the like. Pick up a murder mystery, a gardening book, a volume of Shakespeare or anything that will teach you something you didn't know anything about."

So can creativity be taught or learned? Draw your own conclusions as Paul Johnson explores the essence of creativity in his remarkable (stunning, actually) book, Creators. In 15 page-turning chapters (17 pages per chapter), he analyzes, slices and dices an extraordinary mix of the world's most creative (and usually highly productive) people. Buyer beware: the fruits of creativity apparently give license to immorality. But that's also worth studying. Why is that and how do leaders foster the creative spirit in others?

I read chapter 14 first on Picasso and Walt Disney. "Paris and Hollywood: no two places could be more unlike; yet no two are so similar in the mixture of eagerness and cynicism with which they nurtured creativity, both vulgar and sublime." Disney died at 65 in 1973. Yikes...what have I done with my life so far? Time is getting short!

Creative people, I learned, are often workaholics. By 1900, Picasso "was turning out a painting every morning, and doing other things in the afternoon." His total output on stone, canvas, paper, ceramics, metal and more: 30,000 pieces. He died at age 92 in 1966.

Creative people also focus on excellence. "Like Durer and Rubens, Disney put excellence before any other consideration, and the studio barely made a profit despite its huge bookings, since the incoming cash instantly went for investment in new technology and better artists." At one time Disney employed over 1,000 animators, artists and draftsmen. Yikes again! Imagine writing an HR manual to deal with 1,000 artist-types!

The chapter on fashion designers contrasting Balenciaga and Dior was amazing--maybe because I'd never read 17 pages on fashion. The two fashion giants of the 20th century ran their sizeable shops (office and workrooms) two distinct ways: one like a monastery and the other like a party room (Dior). Absolutely fascinating. I read multiple paragraphs of that chapter to anyone who would listen.

There's a lot more. Chaucer, Shakespeare, J.S. Bach, Victor Hugo and others. The chapter on Mark Twain is sub-titled, "How to Tell a Joke." Johnson writes, "He understood the economics of humor, and how, once you have a funny idea--a champion frog that cannot move because it is loaded with shot--you can use it, with suitable variation, again and again." Johnson himself does not lack in creative commentary: "A storyteller is a licensed liar, though he must never say so."

On Bach, the author wonderfully describes "the continual warfare between those who play the organ and those who make the organ," and adds, "operating an organ is, and always has been, a source of great anger."

Let me tempt you to read the book with this--a typical Johnson sum-up, this one of Bach. "There are probably about 1,200 works all told, out of--perhaps--1,600 or 1,700 composed; a few are short, but only a tiny number are slight. Considering the amount of time Bach had to spend playing, conducting, arguing with officials, teaching and copying, this output is astounding--the man was a copious, gushing, unceasing fountain of creativity."

A follow up to Paul Johnson's momentous work, Intellectuals, in which Johnson pointed out the hypocrisy and moral degeneration of the those who claim to be the great custodians of human justice and morality, an 'intellectual' is according to Johnson's definition someone who believes that ideas are more important than people.

In this highly readable and interesting volume, Johnson traces the lives and works of writers, architects, writers and designers. We learn of their lives and the ins and outs of their work.
In his introduction, Johnson refers to the Ancient Egyptian, Imhotep ((2650-2600 BCE), believed to be the first stone architect. Johnson takes us through the linguistic skill and alliterations of Chaucer, and examines two characters of Shakespeare's Falstaff and Hamlet.
He informs us how Victor Hugo was motivated to write Les Miserables, on the injustices he believed himself to have suffered despite his own callous disregard for the women he used and discarded.
He compares Hugo to Dickens, who unlike Hugo was true humanitarian and philanthropist. While Hugo thundered about injustice in general, dickens worked in specific instances to remedy it.
In his chapter on the great designers of the 20th century, Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga he describes the motivations of those who shaped beauty and elegance . He describes the 1960 as 'that disastrous decade'. Lastly he compares Pablo Picasso, revered by the av ant garde left, to be a brutal and sadistic egomaniac who beat women unconscious and supported the worst excesses of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, Spain and elsewhere.
By contrast Walt Disney rejected Leftist ideals, struggled against those artists who aimed to turn cinema into a Marxist political tool and as a result was and still is demonized by the left wing thoughts and ideas establishment
A lively testimony of those who create and are inspired, and their lives and characters. A good read.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The first chapter, on Chaucer, was brilliant and illuminating; the details of his life here were not mentioned when I was in college, and the analysis of his genius made me want to go back and look at "The Canterbury Tales" all over again. And this is where the "dangerous" part comes in: I wound up ordering the original Middle English for my Kindle, and a good translation in paperback.

The next chapter, on Albrecht Durer, was equally fascinating, and I wound up ordering a couple books of Durer's drawings and woodcuts! More danger! :-)

I survived the chapter on Shakespeare undamaged, since I already have everything Shakespeare wrote.

But the fascination (and the "danger") go on and on. I have so far resisted the idea of ordering any more of Bach's music, but I do want to investigate the work of a man named Pugin, whom I had never heard of before. Jane Austen and George Eliot deserve a more thorough review, and so on.

So I am reminded of a term I heard from the book-trade: "Mrs. X is one of the best hand-sellers in the business." What's a "hand-seller?" Well, this is basically a person who reads widely and loves books, and will engage customers in conversation, dropping in things like, "Oh, so you like Dickens, do you? Have you ever read anything by Trollope?" And she puts a copy of "The Warden" in your hand. "Oh, you follow the career of Freud, do you? Have you read this latest book?" -- and another book is plopped into your hand. When you finally reach the check-out counter, you may be holding four or five books you had not even contemplated buying, but are now eager to read.

Paul Johnson's "Creators" is just such an experience, but I'm pretty sure that he gets no commission from his excellent work!! :-)

I like paul johnson, and this book is a nice survey on an interesting array of figures. He provides cute anecdotes and primary traits that are found in different creators. Its an easy read, that will give you interesting but forgetful facts. I recommend it, but I recommend it be digested in sips, not in gulps.