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Twenty-six years after Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” premiered, the evil genius is back with his sequel “Love Never Dies” being unveiled in London today.

In 1504 no less a historic name than Niccolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, brought together the two greatest artists of the time to decorate the walls of the Great […]

We love our American President for his gift with words, and we learn from him in how he uses them—in articulating war, in assailing Wall Street, or even in making […]

It is a sad state of affairs when I have to read down the blogroll on my personal blog to see any recent mention of the flood that just devastated […]

Smart people have long had a history of quirky and inexplicable habits: Nietzsche wound up hugging horses, Freud couldn’t kick a drug addiction, Nikola Tesla adored white pigeons and loathed […]

Just as your mom always suspected, brilliance lies within you. And not only you, but nearly every seemingly normal human being. That’s the provocative thesis of David Shenk’s forthcoming book, […]

Scientists have uncovered powerful evidence showing the connection between intelligence and madness, revealing that high-achievers are far more likely to be manic depressives.

His book is called “The Genius in All of Us.” But do any men or women of brilliance hold special fascination for David Shenk?

Michael Lewis is probably best known these days for two great sports books, Moneyball and The Blindside. But he originally made his name with Liar’s Poker, a book based on […]

A conversation with the author of “The Genius in All of Us.”

Michelangelo spent most of his life on a massive guilt trip. When he painted The Crucifixion of St. Peter in 1550 (pictured), he inserted not one, but two self-portraits. To […]

The astonishing skills displayed by autistic savants are evidence not of the mystery and rarity of genius, but of the plasticity of the ordinary human mind.

They say that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. When they say that, they usually mean that they’re going to get drunk, not write a novel. But while a […]

When you hear the name Leonardo da Vinci you automatically think “Genius” with a capital “G.” Such Genius that he seemingly came from nowhere to walk among us. Science fiction […]

Who killed Caravaggio? Or what killed Caravaggio? Four hundred years later, who cares? To “celebrate” the 400th anniversary of the demise of the demented genius of the Renaissance, Italy’s National […]

“Fail better,” Beckett advised. David Shenk affirms that it’s not just persistence that produces brilliance—it’s persistence at a skill level beyond one’s own.

Genes and environment don’t determine different quantities of our success (or failure). Instead, they operate together in surprising and complex ways.

The eroticism of Gustav Klimt’s painting is obvious to anyone who has enjoyed his art. A new exhibition at the Secession in Vienna, Austria will make that eroticism obvious to […]

When J.D. Salinger passed away recently, many casual fans who only remember him from tattered copies of The Catcher in the Rye lost long ago seemed shocked that he was […]

Simon Schama’s piece on the relationship of objects to history in the Weekend FT reminds us of Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God. This was the artist’s outrageous/brilliant/bullshit/prescient/profitable/pathetic/gorgeous/obscene (depending) diamond-encrusted […]

Just when you think you’ve seen them all, a new Vincent Van Gogh painting rises from seemingly nowhere. An 1886 painting titled Le Blute-Fin Mill (pictured) recently became the first […]

Like the first life forms on Earth, the career of John Singer Sargent rose up from the sea. Between 1874 and 1879, when Sargent first emerged from his teens and […]

As the first biographer to hear Louis Armstrong’s private tape recordings, the author of “Pops” discovered a side of the jazz genius the public never suspected.

It was Andy Warhol who said “sex is the biggest nothing of all time,” and whether his coy abstinence is worth comparing to the young novelists analyzed in Katie Roiphe’s […]

Katie Roiphe’s cover essay in today’s New York Times Book Review affectionately notes one thing about several male novelists of an earlier generation—Roth, Bellow, Updike—that we should consider missing: unapologetic, […]

Quick Quiz: Who is the only artist to be named “man of the century”? Picasso? Did Demoiselles d’Avignon and Guernica preach love and peace to define the twentieth century? I […]

A law banning gay marriage in Texas has effectively banned all marriage according to the Democratic attorney general candidate.

Is Lang Lang the most popular pianist on the planet? CNN talks to China’s biggest prodigy a year after he took to the world’s stage.

A conversation with the author of “I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President.”

Josh Lieb describes the traits he shares with the protagonist of his new book, “I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President.”