This list contains a combination of scholarly and popular texts that will give an introduction to the major traditional and current theories and practices of creative activity. Some books are out of print, so you might have to find them in a good college or university library or through the used areas of Amazon and eBay. I have provided Amazon links to some of the books.
A Whack On The Side Of The Head by Roger Von Oech
A Kick In The Seat Of The Pants by Roger Von Oech
Expect The Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It) by Roger Von Oech
Creative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech
Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step by Edward DeBono
The Creative Process by Brewster Ghiselin
Free Play by Stephan Nachmanovitch
Amabile, T.M. (1996). Creativity in Context. Boulder: Westview Press.
Arieti, Silvano. (1976). Creativity: The Magic Synthesis. New York: Basic Books.
Barron, F., Montouri, A., & Barron, A. (Eds.) (1997). Creators on Creating. New York: Penguin Putnam.
Boden, M.A. (1990). The Creative Mind: Myths & Mechanisms. New York: Basic Books.
Briggs, J. (1990). Fire in the Crucible: The Self-Creation of Creativity and Genius. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher.
Brockman, J. (1993). Creativity. New York: Simon and Schuster.
DeBono, E. (1970). Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step. New York: Harper and Row.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins.
Gardner, H. (1993). Creating Minds. New York: Basic Books.
Ghiselin, B. (Ed.) (1952). The Creative Process. New York: Mentor.
Hofstadter, D.R. (1985). Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern. New York: Basic Books.
Hofstadter, D. & The Fluid Analogies Research Group. (1995). Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies. New York: Basic Books.
John-Steiner, V. (2000). Creative Collaboration. New York: Oxford University Press.
Koestler, A. (1964). The Act of Creation. New York: Dell.
Langer, S. (1953). Feeling and Form. New York: Scribnerıs.
LeFevre, K.B. (1987). Invention as a Social Act. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Nachmanovitch, S. (1990). Free Play: The Power of Improvisation in Life and the Arts. New York: Putnam.
Osborn, A.F. (1963). Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem Solving. New York: Scribnerıs.
Paulus, P.B. & Bernard A. Nijstad. (Eds.). (2003). Group Creativity: Innovation Through Collaboration. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rothenberg, A. (1979). The Emerging Goddess: The Creative Process in Art, Science, and Other Fields. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Roukes, N. (1988). Design Synectics: Stimulating Creativity in Design. Worcester: Davis Publications.
Simonton, D.K. (1999). Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sawyer, R. (2003). Group Creativity: Music, Theater, Collaboration. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Sternberg, R.J. (Ed.) (1988) The Nature of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R.J. (Ed.) (1999). Handbook of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Von Franz, M. (1995). Creation Myths. Boston: Shambhala.
Von Oech, R. (1983). A Whack on the Side of the Head. New York: Harper & Row.
Von Oech, R. (1986). A Kick in the Seat of the Pants. New York: Harper & Row.
Wallace, D.B. & Gruber, H.E. (Eds.) (1989). Creative People at Work. New York: Oxford University Press.
Weisberg, R.W. (1993). Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius. New York: W.H. Freeman & Co.
ideaWright Home