Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages - Softcover

Michael Largo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061466417 ISBN 13: 9780061466410

Publisher: HarperPaperbacks, 2008

Synopsis

What is the price of brilliance?

Why are so many creative geniuses also ruinously self-destructive? From Caravaggio to Jackson Pollack, from Arthur Rimbaud to Jack Kerouac, from Charlie Parker to Janis Joplin, to Kurt Cobain, and on and on, authors and artists throughout history have binged, pill-popped, injected, or poisoned themselves for their art. Fully illustrated and addictively readable, Genius and Heroin is the indispensable reference to the untidy lives of our greatest artists and thinkers, entertainingly chronicling how the notoriously creative lived and died--whether their ultimate downfalls were the result of opiates, alcohol, pot, absinthe, or the slow-motion suicide of obsession.

About this title

Review:

Chockablock with faces, figures, and facts Michael Largo s "Genius and Heroin" makes for mad good reading on the divinely inspired, hopelessly self-destructive class. Poe, Piaf, Warhol anyone? --Elle"

Meticulous, fascinating, and often intriguingly bizarre . . . I am full of admiration for his achievement--just the ideal book for bathroom reading. --Simon Winchester, author of "The Professor and the Madman""

"Chockablock with faces, figures, and facts Michael Largo's Genius and Heroin makes for mad good reading on the divinely inspired, hopelessly self-destructive class. Poe, Piaf, Warhol anyone?"--Elle

"Meticulous, fascinating, and often intriguingly bizarre . . . I am full of admiration for his achievement--just the ideal book for bathroom reading."--Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman

Synopsis:

From the dawn of civilisation there has always been a fine line between creativity and self-destruction. An inherent compulsiveness is often required in art to master a level of original thought and superlative skill. It requires everything, some believe, even one's life. "Genius and Heroin" chronicles the lives of the famously talented in all fields who all entwined their genius with one of the many paths toward self-ruin. Whether their downfalls were from opiates, alcohol, pills, absinthe, or the slow-motion suicide of obsession, the indispensable reference to the untidy and self-destructive lives of our greatest artists and thinkers.In this one-of-a-kind reference work, the age-old question - did genius create their own torment, or was it their torment that created their genius - is finally answered. Through luridly compelling portraits, the rise and fall of those who made a mark on history and culture are revealed, for as Samuel Johnson said, "A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself."

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperPaperbacks
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0061466417
• ISBN 13: 9780061466410
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368