I cannot tell you how much I love this peculiar little book, but I'll give it a shot. First, a few questions: Did you know that Balanchine liked to do his own laundry and washed and ironed daily? That Toulouse-Lautrec drew at night and mostly in cabarets and brothels? That Jane Austen wrote in the family sitting room, "subject to all kinds of casual interruptions"? Me neither. Those are just some of the tidbits of fascinating (and probably useless) information to be found in this compilation of the daily rituals of a couple hundred artists, composers, poets, filmmakers, scientists, and playwrights.
It was rumored that Edith Sitwell lay in a coffin for a bit before she began her daily work—that's probably false, but she did write in bed. The rituals are a testament to the endless diversity of human beings in the creative world and also to the diversity of creative habits. The prolific Dickens had to have his writing studio arranged just so and on the desk itself "a small vase of fresh flowers, a large paper knife, a gilt leaf with a rabbit perched upon it, and two bronze statuettes (one depicting a pair of fat toads dueling, the other a gentleman swarmed with puppies.)" Dickens did have something like 23 children, but puppies?? These little anecdotes can be inspiring too—maybe it's time for the creative spirit in you to develop a couple of its own idiosyncratic daily rituals. What could it hurt? I'll leave you with one of my favorites: The writer Jean Stafford grew more reclusive the more popular her works became. She lived on Long Island and wrote that during the summer tourist season, "I stay in the house with the doors locked and the blinds drawn, snarling." I get it.
Carin Pratt is one of the remarkably knowledgeable crew at the Norwich Bookstore—and an ardent recommender of books. Before she landed in these parts, she spent 27 years at CBS News, including two decades as the executive producer of Face the Nation.