Letters to a Young Artist: Building a Life in Art

Overview

In the tradition of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, an original and inspiring work from the bestselling author of The Artist's Way.

Each month, Julia Cameron receives hundreds of letters and e-mails from people around the world who have read her classic work on developing creativity, The Artist's Way, and who long to engage in further dialogue with her.

This book provides Julia's thousands of admirers with just that intimacy and illumination. Written in the form of correspondence from a wise, more experienced artist to a young artist who is full of turbulent self-doubt, Letters to a ...

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Overview

In the tradition of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, an original and inspiring work from the bestselling author of The Artist's Way.

Each month, Julia Cameron receives hundreds of letters and e-mails from people around the world who have read her classic work on developing creativity, The Artist's Way, and who long to engage in further dialogue with her.

This book provides Julia's thousands of admirers with just that intimacy and illumination. Written in the form of correspondence from a wise, more experienced artist to a young artist who is full of turbulent self-doubt, Letters to a Young Artist echoes the many conversations Cameron has with all of the artists whose lives she has touched with The Artist's Way.

In these haunting and eloquent letters, the writer answers questions that are central to the artist's journey: How do I know that I am truly an artist? How can I find encouragement? How can I keep moving despite my fear? A rare window into the heart of the creative process, Letters to a Young Artist is an inspiredvolume from this leading authority on creativity and art.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
It's a good thing the young poet to whom Rilke famously wrote didn't have novelist, playwright and poet Cameron (The Artist's Way, etc.) for a mentor, or he would have given up on the idea of being a poet. Smug, arrogant and unimaginative, Cameron's combative letters (You might enjoy Plexiglas cubes for tables for all I know) reveal little in the way of helpful instruction for a budding writer. Addressing herself to an imaginary young writer who seems like a caricature (wearing black makes [X] feel more like an artist), Cameron counsels that creativity is like electricity: the artist merely plugs into the current and acts as a conduit. In this way, she observes, a lot of masterpieces were made in passing when the artist was less worried about the quality of the art than getting it down on canvas or paper. Yet she simultaneously insists on the importance of craft. Midway through their correspondence, she declares simplistically, it is fun to make art. These letters can never substitute for the deeper insights of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Mario Vargas Llosa's Letters to a Young Novelist or even Bret Lott's new and insightful Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of the Writer's Life. Agent, Elizabeth Winnick at McIntosh & Otis. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In her latest book, intended to encourage creativity in writers, Cameron (The Artist's Way) puts a contemporary twist on Rainer Maria Rilke's 1929 classic, Letters to a Young Poet. She offers her advice in the form of letters to an artist pen pal named X, continuing to promote her earlier idea of "morning pages" for writers to plan their days and banish their inner critics by free writing at the start of each day. She discusses spirituality as a means of eliminating self-doubt and emphasizes that writers need to choose their companions wisely because, just like a creative piece, each requires care and upkeep. The book's overall focus is to promote living life as a way of making art, and Cameron fully succeeds in conveying her ideas. Writing groups will benefit from reading Rilke and Cameron to boost their own artistic processes. Recommended for academic and public libraries.-Joyce Sparrow, Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas Cty., FL Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780641820502
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
  • Publication date: 4/21/2005
  • Pages: 176
  • Product dimensions: 5.70 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Award-winning writer Julia Cameron is the author of twenty books, fiction and nonfiction, including The Artist's Way, Walking in This World, The Vein of Gold, The Right to Write, and The Sound of Paper, her bestselling works on the creative process. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has extensive credits in theater, film, and television.

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