Talents and Geniuses Author:Gilbert Highet Gilbert Highet's radio talks have captured a wide, literate audience during recent years. This book is the first collection of essays based on these talks to become available in soft covers. Mr. Highet here displays his varied interests, his wit, and his erudition in discussion of topics ranging from Bach to Zen Buddhism. The book is divided... more » into three sections: "Music and Art," containing vignettes of Bosch, Bruegel, Bach, and Charles Ives, and observations on the art of cave dwellers, the funerary art of the Etruscans, war as depicted in art, and the aesthetic instincts of birds; "Characters," including sketches of Colette, Socrates, Pepys, and Baron Corvo, among others; and "Writing and Reading," where Mr. Highet writes provocatively on the processes of writing and publishing books, the openings of novels, and the occupational diseases of critics.« less