The Demon and the Angel
Subtitle: Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration
Publisher: Harcourt
Published: March 26, 2002
Language: eng
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780151005383
First sentence: I WISH I HAD BEEN IN Buenos Aires on October 20, 1933, when Federico Garcia Lorca delivered a lecture that he called "Juego y teoria del duende" ("Play and Theory of the Duende").
Description: "A work of art, whether a painting, a dance, a poem, or a jazz composition, can be admired in its own right. But how does the artist actually create his or her work? What is the source of an artist's inspiration? What is the force that impels the artist to set down a vision that becomes art?".

"In this book, poet and critic Edward Hirsch explores the concept of duende, that mysterious, highly potent power of creativity that results in a work of art. It has been said that Laurence Olivier had it, and so did Ernest Hemingway, but Maurice Evans and John O'Hara did not. Marlon Brando had it but squandered it. Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith had it, and so did Miles Davis.".

"From Federico Garcia Lorca's wrestling with darkness as he discovered the fountain of words within himself to Martha Graham's creation of her most emotional dances, from the canvases of Robert Motherwell to William Blake's celestial visions, Hirsch taps into the artistic imagination and explains, in terms illuminating and emotional, how different artists respond to the power and demonic energy of creative impulse."--BOOK JACKET.