Daily Rituals

Description

'Utterly fascinating' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Anthony Trollope wrote three thousand words every morning before heading off to his job at the Post Office. Toulouse-Lautrec did his best work at night, sometimes even setting up his easel in brothels, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas and a bathrobe. 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 examines the working routines of more than a hundred and sixty of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived. Filled with fascinating insights on the mechanics of genius and entertaining stories of the personalities behind it, Daily Rituals is irresistibly addictive, and utterly inspiring.

Promotion info

'Utterly fascinating' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times

Reviews

a trove of entertaining anecdote and thought-provoking comparison -- Toby Lichtig 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

Author description

Mason Currey was born in Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Currey's writing has appeared in Slate, Metropolis, and Print. He lives in New York.