"This book is about real genius. . . . Steptoe (Univ. of London, UK) provides genuinely high quality contributions by scholars of artists like Mozart, Shakespeare, Byron, and Darwin. Case histories of individuals are fascinating. Similar to the engaging Creativity & Madness, ed. by Barry Panter et al. (CH, May'95), this volume takes another step: it uses a variety of techniques to measure and quantify the personalities, success, style, and expertise of the subjects. Steptoe's volume will serve as a stepping-stone for additional research on individual brilliance; from this research and the investigations that should follow it, one will be able to learn not only more about the individual genius but about the consistency and diversity of remarkable minds. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty and practitioners."--Choice

"Gathering the thoughts of colleagues from around the globe, Andrew Steptoe, a professor of psychology at St George's Hospital, London, has produced a book that is . . . notable for the ambition of the questions it addresses."--Times Literary Supplement

". . .if you want to learn about some geniuses without coming away with a complete understanding of what turned them into geniuses, this book may be for you."--American Journal of Pshychology