The #1 New York Times Bestseller
“A powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life…a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it.”—The New Yorker
“Vigorous, insightful.”—The Washington Post
“A masterpiece.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Luminous.”—The Daily Beast
He was history’s most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us?
The author of the acclaimed bestsellers Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography.
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.
He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.
His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo’s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.
Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it—to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.An Amazon Best Book of October 2017: With biographies of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Steve Jobs under his belt, and a reputation as one of our premiere nonfiction writers, Walter Isaacson is the right person to take on a monumental figure like Leonardo da Vinci. To write this biography Isaacson immersed himself in da Vinci’s 7,200 pages of notebooks, which these days are spread across the map. Da Vinci’s interests were even more divergent, and Isaacson’s empathetic and deeply researched portrait illustrates how he willed himself to genius through endless curiosity and a creativity that sometimes crossed over into fantasy. Much like Isaacson’s previous subjects of Ben Franklin and Steve Jobs, da Vinci was a polymath– he was passionate about art, science, nature, and technology, and he never stopped questioning, practicing, or experimenting. This is what made him the great innovator and historical figure that we recognize today—and Isaacson points out that this is a particular form of genius that can teach us how to live our own lives. — Chris Schluep, Amazon Book Review
A brilliant portrayal of the process (and not the product); an inspiring invitation to invest in curiosity and observation While decidedly an affectionate biography, Isaacson is able to piece together the thought process of a genius. As he states at the outset, the previous subjects of his biographies have all one common element – the multidisciplinary approach of their thinking. Perhaps what comes through in this epic biography, is the profound power of observation. Whether it is in the description of 67 different words to describe flow of water, or the to-do lists of da Vinci. the various attempts to…
The Quest to Understand what Makes Some People Geniuses Walter Isaacson is on a quest. To understand his Leonardo Da Vinci you have to understand something of why he choose to write a biography about him at all, after writing biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein. Thankfully, Isaacson is explicit about what interests him in these personages and so there is no need for reading between the lines.
Magnificent Biography of one of the worlds great innovators. This book is massive Magnificent Biography of one of the worlds great innovators. This book is massive, not only in length but in depth. Isaacson’s biographical narrative is seamlessly interwoven with analysis and context of the work of da Vinci. The book itself is beautifully printed on high quality paper with numerous well rendered illustrations abundantly presented. In presenting da Vinci’s personal thoughts and events of his life, Isaacson identifies sources supported by plenty of end notes and citations. You…