Steinbeck's letters were written on the left-handed pages of a notebook in which the facing pages would be filled with the text of East of Eden. They touched on many subjects - story arguements, trial flights of workmanship, concern for his sons.

Part autobiography, part writer's workshop, these letters offer an illuminating perspective on Steinbeck's creative process, and a fascinating glimpse of Steinbeck, the private man.

Storr begins by debunking the popular notion that creative people are necessarily motivated by neurosis. Although creativity can spring from a desire for power, wealth, prestige or sexual conquest, at its deepest level it is an integrative impulse that both nourishes and consoles the human soul. In probing the origins and the consequences of creativity, Storr paints brief, stunningly insightful portraits of an astonishing range of gifted individuals, including Leonardo da Vinci, Darwin, Mozart, Einstein, Kafka, Newton, Balzac and Wagner. Like his bestselling Solitude, The Dynamics of Creation is a brilliantly compelling synthesis of psychology, biography, cultural analysis and artistic appreciation.