The notion that melancholia spurs creativity is widespread, but in science it has been controversial, and research has not really demonstrated a direct link between sadness and many of the most lasting achievements in art history.

Now, a new study from an economist at the University of Southern Denmark appears to show that link. The researcher, Karol Jan Borowiecki, examined the emotional state of three influential composers through the full course of their lives. Using linguistic analysis software that scanned the text for positive and negative emotions, such as joy, love, grief and hurt, he analyzed 1,400 letters written by Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Liszt to their friends, colleagues and loved ones. All three had turbulent lives, sometimes tragic, sometimes jubilant. He compared the data with the compositions they produced, looking in particular at their most influential and transformative works.

What he found was a link between periods of negative emotions, especially sadness, and artistic brilliance.

For all their extraordinary achievements, Borowiecki’s analysis suggests that the causes of these composers’ happiness and sadness were the same as any ordinary individual. When they had stable and engaging employment, good health and personal relationships they were happy, and when they fell on hard times financially, their health became poor or when a close relative died, they were predictably sad.

Borowiecki’s analysis suggests that negative emotions are not just correlated with creativity but that they actually have a causal effect on it. Using econometrics, he calculates that a 9.3 percent increase in negative emotions leads to a 6.3 percent increase in works created in the following year. To generate an entire important composition in the next year, the composer would need to see his negative emotions increase by about 37 percent.

“Creativity, measured by the number of important compositions, is causally attributable to negative moods, particularly sadness”.(adapted from an article on Inc.com)

Apparently, composers wrote more letters when they were angry or depressed,and fewer when they were happy. Moreover, their production of first class pieces went down if they were married, in a relationship, or felt contented.

Maybe the moral is: if you associate with someone who has an artistic temperament make him or her utterly miserable and the world will be blessed with a masterpiece! Seriously, though, I think the answer lies in the fact that, when stressed or miserable, artists find refuge in the one thing that gives them pleasure, that they know how to do well, and which will allow them, if temporarily, to forget their troubles. Music composition is, in particular, utterly absorbing – balm for the soul

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Please Note: I have found a way of posting these last two days, but will probably not be able to do so on Monday or Tuesday.

When Amazon launched the Kindle, in 2007, the death of the printed book was confidently predicted. But while e-books make up a significant share of the market—between 20 and 25 per cent—sales slowed sharply in 2015. In the US, the number of people reading books primarily on e-readers fell from 50 per cent three years ago to 32 per cent now. Publishers such as Simon & Schuster and Hachette have been investing heavily in warehouses and book distribution depots.

The pattern has been repeated in Britain. Waterstones, once under serious threat of closure, has returned to profit. Overall sales of paperbacks and hardbacks rose 3 per cent in the first half of 2015. Publishers have started to create books that are also beautiful, and the  market is growing for special editions you can show off on your bookshelf.

So is this the end of the e-book? Not quite. Fans of crime and romance—who in the past would have bought throwaway paperbacks—still much prefer e-books. Sales of the Kindle are down but you can easily download books from the Kindle or iBooks app on your tablet or smartphone. Holiday reading on your device is now commonplace. But readers saturated with screen-time are undoubtedly rediscovering the pleasures of the printed page. (based on a Prospect magazine article, Big Ideas  of 2016, Dec 2015)

One of the benefits of the digital age is that authoring a book has never been easier.  I recently published a small volume of rhymed verse, just for friends and family.  The copy editing, the design and illustration on the front and back pages all take time, but once the overall design of the book is done the printing takes a matter of a few days, and, bingo!, you not only have your book, advertised on Amazon as well. One can argue, justifiably, that we are overloaded with information and books to read, and self-publishing is not generally a good way to make an income. The 80/20 principle applies. On the other hand it is a wonderful encouragement to put your ideas into print with relatively little time and expense.