Empirical analysis based on a large sample of diverse creative artists (880 individuals among 11 occupations) suggests strongly that writers live significantly fewer years than do their peers in other creative professions. These vivid results are not inconsistent with the few extant studies dealing with longevity among creative individuals, although very little by the way of explanation is offered in this limited body of evidence. In this paper a tentative theory is presented, wherein the interaction of work and leisure are seen as impacting on the artists' health and consequent longevity. For the writer, as much and usually more so than other artists, work is seen as providing little immediate pleasure, and often a significant amount of plain. Leisure choices, which are complementary with the writer's work, are not conducive to long life. An initial review of academic and bibliographic writing on life-style, the nature of work, and artistic temperament, offers support for these speculations. ▶ 'Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be novelists.' Constance Casey, book editor, 1988. ▶ 'A judicious parent would be far more anxious to give his children a taste for natural history, than for literature...' Charles Turner Thackrah, English physician, philosopher and writer, 1832. ▶ 'When I first informed [my parents] that I had decided to become a writer they were horrified; it was as though I had announced that I was going to become a criminal Henry Miller, writer, 1946. © 1991.
