Spark: Reviews
“With insight and fluidity, the great Claudia Kalb plumbs the dimensions and dynamics of genius in a sparkling book that illuminates and inspires. This is a wonderful achievement.”
—Jon Meacham, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
“Spark is an intelligent, condensed history of humanity. In a book that constantly surprises and delights, Claudia Kalb studies brilliantly the origin and nature of creativity—from innate abilities to environmental influences—to provide an overall picture of this fascinating area.”
—Diana Widmaier Picasso, art historian and granddaughter of Pablo Picasso
“Claudia Kalb is a masterful storyteller who weaves science with biography to reveal new insights into how passion and purpose emerge. Rigorously and thoroughly readable, Spark is both captivating and enlightening.”
—Richard Kogan, concert pianist and psychiatrist, Weill Cornell Medical College
“Kalb, author of the best seller Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder, brings her award-winning journalistic talent to cover the topic of genius. In Spark, she profiles 12 renowned lives, each of them gifted with intelligence, curiosity, creativity, perseverance, and luck. Intriguingly, the book is organized by the time in the subjects’ lives in which genius first stood out…Kalb’s book should have universal appeal…but may particularly resonate with readers who are comforted by the notion that accomplishment and discovery come at many different ages.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“An inherently fascinating, informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking read from first page to last…”
—Midwest Book Review
“Readers of this engaging book will walk away reminded of the many forms genius can take, and the many ages at which it can present itself.”
—Columbus Dispatch