Jeremy ’s Reviews > Daily Rituals: How Artists Work > Status Update

John Milton was totally blind for the last 20 years of his life yet he managed to produce a steady stream of writing, including his magnum opus, Paradise Lost, composed between 1658 and 1664.

Freud 1856-1939
his wife managed the household while he worked most of the day. His long workdays were mitigated by two things- his beloved cigars (nearly 20 a day) and the families annual 3 month summer vacations.

Karl Marx 1818-1883
no normal job. Took handouts from friend. Long hours of work at night.
German-born philosopher, political theorist, economist, historian, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto (with Friedrich Engels) and his three-volume Das Kapital (1867–1894); the latter employs his critical approach of historical materialism in an analysis of capitalism.

Thomas Mann 1875-1955
wrote from 9-12 no exceptions.
a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories.

Gustave Flaubert 1821-1880

He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism. He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary (1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics.
Writing was torturous for him. Painfully slow. But still he wrote, “work is still the best way of escaping life.”

Chopin 1810-1849
Composed throughout the day.
mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, the instrumental ballade (which Chopin created as an instrumental genre), études, impromptus, scherzi, preludes, and sonatas, some published only posthumously. Among the influences on his style of composition were Polish folk music, the classical tradition of Mozart and Schubert, and the atmosphere of the Paris salons.

He was no doubt, influenced by his mother, Francis Trollope,. She began writing at the age of 53 and only because she needed money to support her family. She sat down at her desk each day at 4 AM and completed her writing in time to serve breakfast.

Anthony Trollope always began his task by reading the work of the day before, and operation, which would take half an hour, and which consist of chiefly in weighing with his ear, the sound of the words and phrases.

Anthony Trollope 1815-1882
47 novels and 16 other books by an unvarying early morning writing session.
5:30am at his table no mercy.
A man should have trained himself that he shall be able to work continuously during those three hours – so have tutored his mind that it should not be necessary for him to sit nibbling his pen, and gazing at the wall before him.
Employed as civil servant for most of that time.