We usually think of artists as loners set apart from the rules and regulations of society. But there is an adventuresome alternative to the lone-genius model — creative pairs. In this inspiring and edifying work, Joshua Wolf Shenk blends academic research, thorough reportage, and historical evidence as he presents profiles of those who have demonstrated the "powers of two." Among their number are John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Vincent and Theo van Gogh, Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. There are many variations in creative partnerships which feed on the paradoxical yearning for both security and novelty.

In a series of snappy chapters, Shenk looks at the star and the director, the dreamer and the doer, generators and resonators, and the dialogue of creative thinking. At one point, he quotes Arthur Koestler in The Act of Creation on "bisociation" — "the sudden interlocking of two previously unrelated skills, or matrices, of thought."

As Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, we have built a ministry and an entrepreneurial career out of our creative collaboration. It takes plenty of respect, discipline, imagination, and attention to work side by side as partners, but we've been doing it for nearly 45 years. We have different skills, and we appreciate and respect what the other does best. Through our work, we become one and experience the joy of co-creating a review, a spiritual practice, or an e-course.