Fire in the Crucible: Understanding the Process of Creative Genius

The co-author of Looking Glass Universe probes the nature of creativity and reveals the strategies and tactics of some of our greatest creative minds.

What makes geniuses different from the rest of us? What is the difference between a prodigy and a genius? Are geniuses born or made? What is creative vision and where does it come from? What are the secrets of talent? And why do great creators seem to have so many oppositions in their personalities?

In this mind-expanding investigation of creativity, John Briggs reveals that there is no special trait of genius. Geniuses are not necessarily smarter or more talented than other people, but they give their attention to subtle nuances, contradictory feelings and perceptions that others experience and ignore. By focusing on sensory nuances, geniuses create themselves.

Fire in the Crucible offers a compelling exploration of the roots of creativity and genius. Drawing on the lives and work of extraordinary scientists, artists, writers, composers, and inventors, Briggs shows how creative individuals exploit doubt and uncertainty, and the mental strategies and tactics they employ when they work. "In asking about creativity," he writes, "we are really asking about what is best, what is deepest in life." Fire in the Crucible draws the reader into an eye-opening journey through the inner workings of some of the greatest creative minds of all time—and allows us to understand more deeply the nature of creativity in our own lives and work.

Praise for Fire in the Crucible

"His refreshingly open-ended approach brings us closer to the elusive nature of genius." —Publishers Weekly

"An exuberant voyage through the brains and minds of creative individuals, chock-full of intriguing scientific discoveries and puzzling paradoxes." —Howard Gardner, Harvard University, author of Multiple Intelligences

John Briggs is a professor of English of Western Connecticut State University, has taught at the New School for Social Research in New York, and holds a doctorate in aesthetics and psychology. He is the author of Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos, and coauthor, with physicist F. David Peat, of Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness, and Seven Life Lessons of Chaos.