At the Center of All Beauty

Solitude and the Creative Life

By: Fenton Johnson

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

A profound meditation on accepting and celebrating one's solitude.

Solitude is the inspirational core for many writers, artists, and thinkers. Alone with our thoughts, we can make discoveries that matter not only to us but to others. To be solitary is not only to draw sustenance from being alone, but to know that our ultimate responsibility is not only to our partner or our own offspring, but to a larger community.

Fenton Johnson's lyrical prose and searching sensibility explores what it means to choose to be solitary and celebrates the notion that solitude is a legitimate and dignified calling. He delves into the lives and works of nearly a dozen iconic "solitaries" he considers his kindred spirits, from Thoreau at Walden Pond and Emily Dickinson in Amherst, to Bill Cunningham photographing the streets of New York, from Cezanne (married, but solitary nonetheless) painting Mt. St. Victoire over and over again, to the fiercely self-protective Zora Neale Hurston. Each character portrait is full of intense detail, the bright wakes they've left behind illuminating Fenton Johnson's own journey from his childhood in the backwoods of Kentucky to his travels alone throughout the world and the people he has lost and found along the way.

©2020 Fenton Johnson (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

The Book I Needed to Read 50 Years Ago

I can't help wishing this book had been written 50 years ago. Magical thinking, I know. When I was first out of college I watched one of those TV medical dramas popular in the 1960s. An intern on the show described himself as a solitary.

And I thought that's me!

But when I shared my revelation with friends, they collectively said, "Oh, no. You can't be that. You've got to get married and have a house in the suburbs and two-point-six children, and one-point-four dogs, plus three cats, and, of course, a respectable job.

Zero support for the solitary man in 1970.

I fumbled along with life trying to fit in and put up what one girlfriend called a "couple front." I married twice but refused to have kids. A big problem from my parents' perspective. What had they done wrong that I didn't want a family? One dog and numerous cats didn't count. Why was I rejecting the American Dream?

In high school and college, I read several books with characters I could identify with like Holden in Catcher in the Rye. There was the famous anti-marriage novel A Farewell to Arms as well as Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. I somehow missed Colin Wilson's The Outsider. It might have helped. Knowledge is power and all that.

But this book on Solitude and the Creative Life would have been life-changing had it been around when I was a young man. It would have given me role models from real life and helped me understand myself as a solitary.

Times have changed and being a solitary does not carry all the social taboos that existed in 1970. But it still can't be easy.

So l hope this book finds its way into the hands of young people who need support on a sometimes lonely path.

A Memoir Of Sorts

Fenton Johnson uses his memoir expertise to explain and celebrate solitudes and the destinies we create. As an artist, I continuously search for process and practice. Fenton reminds us that in the silence of solitude we find more ideas, more character and a clearer sense of oneness and community. Contemplation in solitude is beautiful and necessary; if for a time, or a lifetime.

Learn about others and yourself

What a wise and elegant exploration of those who are—have chosen to be—solitary. I am recommending this to so many friends. And excellent performance by Sean Runnette.

Stunning and reflective

This is a book I wish I had available to me when I was a senior in high school. I wonder of it would have changed my life. The reader does a wonderful job, as well.

literary gem

memoir at its best.
thought provoking and analytical.
who knew there were so many solitaries.