A Life in Biography

It is a mystery, so you’re not getting anything from me. Just listen

Cathy Curtis gets into the nitty gritty of biography, explaining how she does her work, why she chose Elizabeth Hardwick, and why her next subject is Edna O’Brien

A deep dive into the life of one of America’s greatest poets and how a biographer goes about her work. Don’t miss Holladay’s concluding remarks about how to approach the poet.

Two biographies that say a lot of why we turn to biography.

How a biography of a war correspondent gets done with a veteran biographer of war correspondents, Ray Boomhower.

Faulkner’s performance of gayness, why it was important, how it enters his work, and why a book such as Gay Faulkner destablizes biography is a good thing.

Why write another biography of? Three biographers answer the question for Robert E. Lee, Oliver Cromwell, and Winston Churchill

Part of a continuing series on the biographical novel and the way it contributes to our understanding of biographical subjects—this time with Dina Davis who does justice to Assia Wevill

A wide-ranging discussion with Karen Christensen, publisher and biographer, about libel, indemnity clauses, the widow Eliot and others widows and wives.

A wide ranging discussion of how biographers treat the issue of interpretation, how much to comment as opposed to just telling the story.

I explain why in terms of my own experience researching and writing about the life of Sylvia Plath

I explain why in terms of my own experience working on Sylvia Plath

A wide-ranging discussion of Billy Wilder’s career, why McBride decided to do a biographical/critical study of the director, and the different objectives of biographical and critical studies in view of McBride’s own work on Frank Capra, John Ford, Steven Spielberg, Orson Welles, and others.

How the biographical novel got started, what it is now, and where we are headed.

Three new biographies that say so much about the art of biography.

A talk about a great figure in the Civil Rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer, with a master biographer, Kate Clifford Larson

Introductions to five new biographies of miscreants and saints: Louis Lorax, Mary Todd Lincoln, Robert Maxwell, Simone Weil, and Queen Victoria

Brief forays into six biographies of Monica Jones and Philip Larkin, D. H. Lawrence, Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Frankenthaler, William Blake, and Napoleon

More interviews with biographers, biographical novelists, discussions of issues that concern biographers and readers, and my take on several new biographies published in 2021.

Part 5 of a long-running series about the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography. This episode concentrates on the business of biography.

Part 4 of a discussion of the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography with Tim Christian, biographer of Mary Hemingway, and Carol Sklenicka, biographer of Raymond Carver and Alice Adams

Susan Ronald explains why FDR chose Joseph Kennedy, a man without diplomatic skills, to be ambassador to Great Britain between 1938 and 1940

Talking with Connie Palmen about her biographical novel written in the voice of Ted Hughes: Your Story, My Story. We discuss the principles, practices, and mechanics of biographical fiction.

Think there is a sharp dividing line between biography and biographical fiction? Jerome Charyn disagrees.

A special treat in this episode: Tim Christian reads from his forthcoming biography of Mary Hemingway.