Isaac Newton. Michelangelo. Anne Rice. Barry Bonds. Haruki Murakami. They and countless others belong to a subculture that will never join hands, a group whose voices, by nature, will never form a chorus. They are loners—and they have at least one thing in common: They keep to themselves. And they like it that way.

Self-reliant, each loner swims alone through a social world—a world of teams, troops and groups—that scorns and misunderstands those who stand apart. Everywhere from newspapers to playgrounds, loners are accused of being crazy, cold, stuck-up, standoffish, selfish, sad, bad, secretive and lonely—and, of course, serial killers. Loners, however, know better than anyone how to entertain themselves—and how to contemplate and to create. They have a knack for imagination, concentration, inner discipline, and invention—a talent for not being bored.

Too often, loners buy into society's messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true nature—and hiding from it. In Party of One, Anneli Rufus delivers a long-overdue argument in praise of loners. Assembling evidence from diverse arenas of culture, Rufus recognizes loners as a vital force in world civilization rather than damaged goods who need to be "fixed." A compelling, morally urgent tour de force, Party of One rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, and that the only experiences that matter are shared ones.

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