Age and Individual Differences in Artistic Productivity: Trends Within a Sample of British Novelists

This study drew on biographical and bibliographical documentary material to investigate individual differences in productivity within a large sample of 20th-century British novelists. Length of literary career predicted the output of both fiction and nonfiction work. Judged literary eminence and gender predicted variation in nonfiction output but not fiction output. However, a substantial proportion of the variance in output could not be explained by career length or the other variables included. Age trends in productivity were similar to those predicted by Simonton 's (1984b) information processing model, but there were differences in the trends of the least and most prolific authors. Consideration of biographical information about individual authors revealed lengthy gaps in the literary careers of the least prolific novelists. The results suggest the need to include both intra-individual factors and social support factors in explaining variation in creative productivity.