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Jun. 4--Historian Paul Johnson's controversial 1988 book, Intellectuals, defined the term as those who think, "Ideas are more important than people."
In the preface of his latest collection, Creators, Johnson notes that some reviewers took exception to that definition as well as to his critical appraisals of left-leaning thinkers such as Karl Marx, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Jean-Paul Sartre.
This time around he opted to write about some of humanity's most creative talents, who have produced tangible works of art instead of utopian pipe dreams.
Creators is more upbeat but no less acute than Intellectuals. Johnson focuses less on beastly behavior, sometimes to the point of fawning. Yet he understands the nature of creative beasts: "No one who studies them will suppose that creators are a particularly amiable or grateful tribe."
As he did in Intellectuals, Johnson produces short but stout profiles. Instead of cautioning against the excesses of the intellect, however, he expounds on artistic genius. For example, Geoffrey Chaucer "found a language; he left a literature." Of printmaker-artist Albrecht Durer, "No other man has been more creative, in black and white." And composer Johann Sebastian Bach "never sought fame, only perfection."
Johnson suggests that the one thing creators share is a good work ethic.
Some are cast in a fresh light. William Shakespeare is examined through two of his greatest characters, Hamlet and Falstaff. Johnson acknowledges Mark Twain's personal flaws but values his genius as America's greatest writer and humorist.
Creators also profiles lesser-known craftsmen such as couturiers Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga. Johnson is at his best describing the difficulty of creating from the most humble of materials. Louis Tiffany, for example, produced glass masterpieces from sand.
Creators has a few drawbacks. Only one chapter is devoted to women. All of Johnson's subjects are deceased. And at least one conclusion is debatable: Animator Walt Disney, it is suggested, created more lasting art than painter Pablo Picasso.
"Evil and creative genius can exist side by side in the same person," writes Johnson, harking back to his dissections of Ernest Hemingway, Henrik Ibsen and Leo Tolstoy in Intellectuals. Picasso, in particular, "seems to have been without redeeming qualities of any kind."
Yet Creators is fascinating and instructive: "People do not always discern the creative element in their lives and work. But those who do are more likely to be happy."
gbudzak@dispatch.com
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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