Inspiration

Description

Three writers pay homage to their unlikely influences in these remarkable and moving essays.

The music of Shostakovich gave Stephen Johnson a reason for living after struggling with bipolar disorder; Alison Leslie Gold wrote her way out of alcoholism under the benign influence of Miep Gies, the woman who sheltered the Anne Frank family; and the madcap ideas of William Burroughs inspired the eminent neurologist A. J. Lees to find new treatments for Parkinson’s Disease.

Includes the following titles:

How Shostakovich Changed My Mind by Stephen Johnson

Found and Lost: Mittens, Miep, and Shovelfuls of Dirt by Alison Leslie Gold

Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment by A. J. Lees