Thinking Places: Where Great Ideas Were Born

For centuries creative people in all fields have had a thinking place - a private retreat where they have worked regularly, hoping to find inspiration. The authors have chosen thirty-one creative people who vaulted from their thinking places to well-deserved fame or international recognition. These special retreats varied from architectural jewels to humble huts to chosen sites in nature itself. George Bernard Shaw's was a simple garden hut with one window and one door - and a turntable underneath. Shaw captured the prevailing sunlight with a push and a turn.

In their journeys, Carolyn and Jack Fleming discovered that many thinking places still seem to exude an atmosphere of creativity. The Flemings have recorded the details of their searches for you, the reader to duplicate - in reality or in imagination. In their travels the authors discovered much little known information, which they have included in sprightly written vignettes. What was Charles Dickens' long kept secret? What beloved figure did Life magazine proclaim "the unofficial president of the United States"? Who received what the U.S. Patent office states is the most valuable patent ever issued? What two leading educators rose from slavery and extreme poverty to world-wide fame? The reader will discover that the thirty-one people selected were as intriguing as they were creative.

Besides descriptive journeys, vignettes and thinking places, the reader will also receive thirty-one instances of lagniappe, a Cajun word for "a little something extra". Read Thinking Places and see what something extra may be in store for you.