A Life in Biography
By Carl Rollyson
Talks and interviews about the life of biography as experienced by a biographer over forty years and fourteen biographies, dealing with subjects ranging from Sylvia Plath to William Faulkner, Marilyn Monroe to Susan Sontag, and much more.
A Life in BiographyMay 08, 2021
00:00
31:40
What memory tells us about biography and doesn’t.
A continuation of the previous podcast about the variables in understanding a writer and his world.
Jun 03, 202314:17
The nature of literary power, who holds it, and how the biographer should understand it.
Samuel R. Delany presents the writer as biographical subject and what it is the biographer needs to know about literary world and how reputations are made. But first a discussion of a movie, The Wife
Jun 03, 202352:35
The Power of the Living Biographical Subject v The Power of the Biographer
What does it mean to be powerful in the literary world, and in what sense should the biographer take it seriously?
May 23, 202331:23
Dylan Thomas and why biography matters, with a cameo performance by Marilyn Monroe
The correspondence with Samuel R. Delany continues, with many digressions, but all of them pertaining to biography and the work it can accomplish
May 14, 202334:29
Why a biographer would go ahead when the subject is fiercely resistant
The Sontag saga continues
May 07, 202334:40
Samuel R. Delany refuses to give up on Susan Sontag’s biographers
The seventh part of what is turning out to be a saga—listened to its entirety it amounts to a class on biography that you can take for free.
Apr 30, 202346:31
Seamus Heaney in America with biographer Ed O’Shea
A talk about Ed O’Shea’s recent book and what matters about Seamus Heaney’s experience in America
Apr 30, 202334:40
What Does It Mean to Know a Biographical Subject
An intervention by the New York Times and the story of a club of unauthorized biographers
Apr 23, 202335:00
Round 5 of The Biographer and His Critic
I continue the debate with Samuel R. Delany, reading from our correspondence and talking about it. In this episode, Sontag has her say.
Apr 15, 202334:35
Round 4: The Biographer and His Critic
Samuel R. Delany continues to point out the error of my ways, and I respond with my own letters and commentary.
Apr 08, 202342:00
The Biographer and His Critic: Round 3
I continue to read and comment on my correspondence with Samuel R. Delany concerning the proper behavior of a biographer.
Apr 01, 202349:39
A Collector’s Item: A Dialogue About Biography
The correspondence of Carl Rollyson and Samuel R. Delany, a latter day version of Oscar’s Wilde’s The Critic as Artist, in the form reminiscent of a Platonic dialogue.
Mar 25, 202329:43
The Ethics of Biography and a Confession
The ethics of biography apply not only to the biographer but also to those who choose to cooperate with a biographer and those who do not.
Mar 18, 202324:57
Finding Jackie: A conversation with Oline Eaton about her new biography
Pay attention to the subtitle of Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented. How Oline Eaton deals with the making and unmaking and making of a fascinating life.
Feb 11, 202333:54
Remembering a great friend & biographer with Mary Dearborn, Diana Jacobs, Sydney Stern, Amanda Vaill
We celebrate the late Marion Meade, novelist and biographer of Dorothy Parker, Buster Keaton, Woody Allen, and others by her fellow biographers and friends.
Feb 08, 202348:35
The tables are turned: Author and publisher Karen Christensen interviews me!
Some penetrating questions and comments on my practice as a biography in an interview with Karen Christensen
Feb 01, 202357:11
Dealing with sources, people and archive, the good,, the bad, and the ugly, with Doug Munro
My resident Pacific Islands historian/biographer, Doug Munro,, discusses the successes and failures with sources, in the archives and in person, and I respond with my own tales of horror and deliverance
Jan 29, 202347:06
The History Wars! In Australia, but it happens here too. Biographers Beware
Part 2 of a conversation with Pacific Islands historian/biographer, Doug Munro, about the cross overs between history and biography, and on the polarization in Australia and here.
Jan 22, 202346:56
A new biography of William Faulkner’s great-grandfather, avatar and precursor
Historical archeologist Jack Elliott explains why we need a new biography of Faulkner’s great-grandfather. Listen to an authentic Mississippi voice!
Jan 14, 202341:42
Doug Munro on Biography and History: Where They Meet and Deviate
A conversation about why history was not enough for Doug Munro, and why he turned to biography, which is also quite not enough
Jan 08, 202341:22
Choosing My Subjects: A Fireside Chat
A year end podcast reflecting on the contingencies of biography.
Dec 31, 202229:26
Two Mailer biographers discuss why he still matters, and why they write about him.
My conversation with J. Michael Lennon, Mailer biographer and interlocutor reflecting on a lifetime with his subject.
Dec 18, 202249:44
Mahala Stripling on her biography of Richard Selzer, the doctor who made an art of medicine
Richard Selzer inspired the work of a generation of doctor/writers. Listen to how he did it, and how his biography is shaping up.
Dec 10, 202236:32
A talk with Bob Batchelor about his new biography of Jim Morrison, The Doors, and the Sixties
A wide-ranging conversation about what you might call the music of biography.
Nov 27, 202249:52
A conversation with Norman Lock about Voices in the Dead House, novels, biography, and much more
I talk with Norman Lock about his American novel series, and why it should matter to biographers. This is my longest, most searching podcast.
Nov 19, 202257:04
Ellen Brown talks about her work in progress, a biography of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams, copyright, fair use, research—Ellen Brown covers it all
Nov 13, 202242:28
Biography By the Day
What it is like trying to capture a day by day account of William Faulkner’s life.
Nov 05, 202216:25
How Diane Diekman became a biographer and her work in progress on Randy Travis
How a biographer begins with nothing—no contacts, no track record—and is successful anyway, writing biographies of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. And wait until you hear about her newsletter!
Oct 29, 202244:12
Becoming You
Are you the same person you were when you were a child? How this question pertains to biography—the one you are writing and mine.
Oct 22, 202244:12
How James Meredith broke the segregation barrier at Ole Miss
A conversation with Kathleen Wickham about her book, James Meredith: Breaking the Barrier” and her other work dealing with journalists who covered the 1962 riot at Ole Miss
Oct 08, 202227:19
Allison Gilbert & Julia Scheeres: Listen, World! Their biography of the intrepid Elsie Robinson
Elsie Robinson had 20 millions readers but no archive. How two biographers set about reconstructing her life.
Oct 01, 202247:29
Work in Progress: A Biography of Marilyn Chambers
The first biography of the adult film star and how a biographer goes about the research, finding an agent and publisher.
Sep 24, 202240:39
A conversation to Jerry Muller about Jacob Taubes, the Professor of Apocalypse
We range over the many places and people of an erotic and intellectual life spanning Europe, the U.S., and Israel with Susan Sontag, Gershom Scholem, Herbert Marcuse, and many more radical thinkers.
Sep 19, 202249:48
A talk with Beverly Gray about Roger Corman, Ron Howard, and what it takes to do a biography
How do you become a biographer? Hear one story about it and Beverly Gray’s adventures with Roger Corman and Ron Howard
Sep 10, 202245:52
A Biography of Jack Ruby, you say?
Listen to Danny Fingeroth speak from an undisclosed location about his work in progress.
Sep 03, 202239:15
Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and the Biographical Quest
LIsten to Aaron Sachs talk about his new book, Up From the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times. I call it a palimpsest of biography in my New York Sun Review.
Aug 20, 202248:47
A talk about Jackie Ronne, polar explorer with her accomplished biographer, Joanna Kafarowski
How history gets rewritten in biographies of women
Aug 06, 202238:20
Why another biography of Ernest Hemingway?
A talk with Wylie McLallen about Hemingway and the rise of modern literature, publishers of biography, and much else.
Jul 30, 202242:60
Coming attractions
Polar exploration and Warren Harding as explained from an Amtrak platform in Charleston, West Virginia
Jul 24, 202202:44
A conversation with Jim Dougherty about his wife’s great biography of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich
85 year old Jim Dougherty’s compelling saga about a great biography that was almost not published.
Jul 09, 202226:01
A conversation with Andrew Wilson about Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Patricia Highsmith & more
Biographer Andrew Wilson talks about his work in fiction and fact, biographies and novels.
Jul 02, 202240:37
A Biography in Progress: Beth Phillips discusses Clifford Odets and why his work and life matter
What it takes for a biographer to do justice to a major American playwright
Jun 26, 202207:30:42
The Biography I did not write
It is probably just as well
Jun 18, 202213:58
To quote Robert Caro: “Turn Ever Page”
The history of publishing Plath’s letters and why it matters to biography
Jun 11, 202239:21
A talk with Alison Macor about her new book, The Making of The Best Years of Our Lives
A lesson here for how to write group biography as well the history of an epic film.
Jun 04, 202201:23:01
War, trauma, and art in the life of Rudolf H. Sauter, and the process of biography
A wide ranging discussion of an artist interned during World War I and what he made of his life and art coming out of that trauma.
May 28, 202236:24
A Faulknerian novel in which Faulkner appears
What happens when a novelist reads, writes like his subject, and puts that subject in a novel?
May 21, 202234:01
The Gatekeepers
You know what I mean, don’t you?
May 12, 202206:54:58
A conversation with Michelle Morgan one of the masters of Marilyn Monroe biography
We delve deeply into a kind of time capsule of 1956, when Marilyn met the Queen and so much else
May 07, 202246:37
A conversation with David O. Stewart about the worlds of biography and fiction
The overlapping worlds of biography and fiction and how they are inter-dependent
Apr 30, 202237:10
A talk with master biographer, Nigel Hamilton.
About the making of a biographer and what keeps him at it.
Apr 23, 202240:08
Cynthia Ozick and “The Biographer’s Hat”
What happens when biographers become the subjects of fiction
Apr 16, 202223:07
Why John C. Calhoun still matters: a talk with his biographer, Robert Elder
There is much more to Calhoun, that proponent of slavery, than you might imagine.
Apr 08, 202251:10
The poetry of biography, and the biography of poetry, with Iris Jamahl Dunkle
The poet as biographer and the biographer as poet
Apr 02, 202238:52
Talking with Lee Kravetz about his fresh, intriguing depiction of Sylvia Plath and her world
A follow up to my New York Sun review of Lee Kravetz’s marvelously inventive novel about Sylvia Plath and the conditions of her life and her creativity.
Mar 27, 202238:52
A conversation with David Beveridge, narrator of volume 2 of The Life of William Faulkner
What goes into an audiobook: the commitment, the performance, the technical details and equipment, and why, in this case, it matters that we hear Faulkner’s voice.
Mar 19, 202236:25
The Story of My Psychoanalysis and Sylvia Plath
An excerpt from my work in progress, The Making of Sylvia Plath
Mar 12, 202215:30
Hemingway’s Widow: A Conversation with Timothy Christian about his new biography of Mary Hemingway
A conversation with Timothy Christian, who provides new insight into the Hemingway marriage, and into the way biographies are constructed and managed between biographers and their sources.
Mar 05, 202207:37:19
A conversation with Kathleen Brady about her biography of the saints of Assisi: Francis and Clare
Learn how Kathleen Brady did Plutarch proud and managed, as well, to write a biography for our times.
Feb 26, 202244:44
Another biography for Black History Month.
The Recovered Life of Isaac Anderson, a well composed biography by Alicia K. Jackson, published by University Press of Mississippi.
Feb 23, 202207:36
A conversation with James McGrath Morris, author of Tony Hillerman: A Life
A wide ranging talk about Hillerman and Morris’s other subjects and how they fit into his conception of biography.
Feb 19, 202245:55
A Biography of the Day for Black History Month
A biography of the first Black archeologist that tells us a good deal not only about Black history but about the enticements of biography.
Feb 17, 202212:51
An unusual group biography: The Psychologies of Political Exile: From Ovid to the Dalai Lama
A talk with prolific biographer and psychoanalyst, Jay Martin, about exile, displaced peoples, and why it should matter to you.
Feb 12, 202248:57
A conversation with Ralph Eubanks, author of A Place Like Mississippi
We range from speaking about the importance of place in memoir and biography to the real and imaginary landscapes of writers, and much more.
Feb 05, 202240:34
Don’t Be Afraid! We’re talking theory here.
A discussion with David Veltman and Kerstin Maria Pahl about their contributions to a new book about biography, Fear of Theory.
Feb 03, 202243:41
A lively talk with Steve Paul about Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S Connell
From Kansas City to medieval alchemy and a lot in between, the life of Evan S. Connell and what it took for a biographer to cover the interstices of this important writer.
Jan 29, 202257:41
Biography of the Day, Part 3
Tune in to a special announcement at the beginning of this podcast.
Jan 26, 202207:27
Who is Assia Wevill? Why Does She Matter?
How one life can illuminate the lives of others.
Jan 22, 202234:23
The Biography of the Day, Part 2
What happens when Frederick Douglass and Andrew Johnson track one another in a Plutarchian biography of parallel lives in the throes of Reconstruction?
Jan 19, 202209:40
Who is Assia Wevill? Why She Matters. Part 1
A conversation with Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Peter K. Steinberg about their edition of The Collected Writings of Assia Wevill
Jan 15, 202243:44
The Biography of The Day, Part 1
Just browse in the bookstore with me. This won’t take long.
Jan 14, 202207:52
Reposting, due to technical difficult. My interview with Debby Applegate about Madam
A look at the career of Polly Adler and why it matters.
Jan 12, 202253:23
Reposting this episode in case you had trouble hearing Debby Applegate talk about Polly Adler
About the famous madam and much more
Jan 12, 202253:23
Plutarch Redux: Parallel Poems in the Age of Trump by Robert Hamblin
Join a conversation in progress about what Plutarch means to us and how to make poetry of Plutarch and biography.
Jan 08, 202248:24
Who’s Afraid of Theory?
My take on a new book, Fear of Theory, and why biographers are reluctant to theorize. Also, a preview of coming attractions.
Jan 01, 202237:14
Christmas 1942 at the Faulkners
One kind of traditional Christmas
Dec 25, 202108:16
Mystery Podcast #1: Every biography is an autobiography
It is a mystery, so you’re not getting anything from me. Just listen
Dec 18, 202121:59
A Conversation with Cathy Curtis about her new biography of Elizabeth Hardwick
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
Dec 11, 202149:54
A talk with Hilary Holladay about her stirring new biography of Adrienne Rich
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.
Dec 05, 202101:38:49
What’s New in Biography for 2021: The Unknowns and the Knowns
Two biographies that say a lot of why we turn to biography.
Dec 04, 202119:43
Ray Boomhower talks about his biography of acclaimed war correspondent, Richard Tregaskis
How a biography of a war correspondent gets done with a veteran biographer of war correspondents, Ray Boomhower.
Nov 20, 202137:17
Gay Faulkner and Biography, how the story gets told, and why.
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.
Nov 13, 202153:48
What’s New in Biography, 2021: Three Well Worn Biographical Subjects
Why write another biography of? Three biographers answer the question for Robert E. Lee, Oliver Cromwell, and Winston Churchill
Nov 06, 202143:49
Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and most of all Assia Wevill in a new light in Capriccio
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
Oct 31, 202140:09
The Business of Biography: An Addendum, courtesy of Karen Christensen
A wide-ranging discussion with Karen Christensen, publisher and biographer, about libel, indemnity clauses, the widow Eliot and others widows and wives.
Oct 23, 202140:42
The Role Of Interpretation: A Discussion with the Inimitable Hans Renders
A wide ranging discussion of how biographers treat the issue of interpretation, how much to comment as opposed to just telling the story.
Oct 21, 202138:48
The Answer to One Biography is Another Biography
I explain why in terms of my own experience researching and writing about the life of Sylvia Plath
Oct 16, 202117:05
The Answer to One Biography is Another Biography
I explain why in terms of my own experience working on Sylvia Plath
Oct 16, 202117:05
A conversation with Joseph McBride about Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge
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.
Oct 09, 202139:37
A Capsule History of The Biographical Novel with Michael Lackey
How the biographical novel got started, what it is now, and where we are headed.
Oct 02, 202101:14:45
What’s New in Biography, Part 3: Show Business and the Archives
Three new biographies that say so much about the art of biography.
Sep 25, 202132:43
A talk about a great figure in the Civil Rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer.
A talk about a great figure in the Civil Rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer, with a master biographer, Kate Clifford Larson
Sep 18, 202139:37
What’s New in Biography, Part 2
Introductions to five new biographies of miscreants and saints: Louis Lorax, Mary Todd Lincoln, Robert Maxwell, Simone Weil, and Queen Victoria
Sep 11, 202136:23
Part 1: What’s New In Biography
Brief forays into six biographies of Monica Jones and Philip Larkin, D. H. Lawrence, Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Frankenthaler, William Blake, and Napoleon
Sep 04, 202125:38
Season 2, Episode 1: A Preview of Coming Attractions
More interviews with biographers, biographical novelists, discussions of issues that concern biographers and readers, and my take on several new biographies published in 2021.
Aug 28, 202111:27
Part 5 of my conversation with Tim Christian and Carol Sklenicka about the business of biography
Part 5 of a long-running series about the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography. This episode concentrates on the business of biography.
Aug 20, 202159:26
Part 4 of a discussion of the principles, practices and mechanics 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
Aug 14, 202155:51
A conversation with Susan Ronald about her new biography about Joseph Kennedy, The Ambassador
Susan Ronald explains why FDR chose Joseph Kennedy, a man without diplomatic skills, to be ambassador to Great Britain between 1938 and 1940
Aug 07, 202146:57
Talking with Connie Palmen about her biographical novel, written in the voice of Ted Hughes
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.
Aug 04, 202130:53
A talk with Jerome Charyn about his novel, Sergeant Salinger, and the aims of biographical fiction.
Think there is a sharp dividing line between biography and biographical fiction? Jerome Charyn disagrees.
Aug 01, 202145:25
Part 3 of our discussion on the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography
A special treat in this episode: Tim Christian reads from his forthcoming biography of Mary Hemingway.
Jul 31, 202155:25
More with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka about the principles, practices & mechanics of biography
More with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka about the principles, practices & mechanics of biography with examples from our work
Jul 24, 202158:38
Episode 66: The Principles & Practices of Biography: A Talk with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka
Episode 66: Talking with Tim Christian (biographer of Mary Hemingway) and Carol Sklenicka (biographers of Raymond Carver and Alice Adams) about the principles and practices of biography.
Jul 17, 202155:58
Episode 65: Biography and the Hermeneutic Circle
What it means to circle around your subject in a biography and how that circling is hermeneutical. I draw on my biography of Lillian Hellman for examples.
Jul 10, 202140:41
Episode 64: Janet Malcolm and the Black Art of Biography
My encounters with Janet Malcolm’s assault on biography, beginning in 1994 and continuing through several books of mine in the new millennium.
Jul 03, 202145:17
June 28, 2021
This podcast doesn't have a description yet. Stay tuned!
Jun 28, 202100:32
Episode 63: Talking with Carol Sklenicka about her biography of Alice Adams
The biographer of Raymond Carver explains what drew her to Alice Adams and the history of the generation that came into its own after World War II
Jun 27, 202139:03
Episode 62: A Talk with Kai Bird about his new Shakespearean/Faulknerian biography of Jimmy Carter
A talk with Kai Bird about his Shakespearean/Faulknerian biography of Jimmy Carter
Jun 19, 202142:34
Episode 61: Biography Anne Sebba discussing Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy
A wide-ranging discussion of why Ethel Rosenberg matters, what is new in her story, and why American writers continue to be obsessed with her life.
Jun 12, 202146:17
Episode 60: The Case for Literary Prurience
I draw on my experience of writing biographies of William Faulkner, Michael Foot, and Amy Lowell, to explain why biographies have to be about the whole person, notwithstanding the charge of literary prurience.
Jun 05, 202103:52:41
Episode 59: Biographology
What you need to know about reading, writing, and reviewing biography.
May 29, 202140:39
Episode 58: The Roth/Bailey Uproar
My view of what has happened to Bailey’s biography of Roth, how reviewers and readers have responded, and why what I’ve seen so far is inadequate.
May 22, 202104:47:24
Talking with Gail Crowther about her new book on Plath & Sexton, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz
What goes into a dual biography, and what a sociologist can bring to the study of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.
May 08, 202131:40
Episode 56: A talk with Ira Nadel about Philip Roth, Leonard Cohen, and authorized/unauthorized bios
A wide-ranging interview about how biography gets done, both authorized and unauthorized, with Nadel’s subjects, Leonard Cohen & Philip Roth, and more.
May 01, 202142:44
Episode 55: Tales Told Out of School, Part 2: 40 Years of Interviewing
What happens during and after interviews, with examples drawn from my biographies of Lillian Hellman, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, Jill Craigie, and Michael Foot.
Apr 17, 202135:35
Episode 54, Part 1: Tales Told Out of School: 40 Years of Interviews
What happens during and after interviews with subjects ranging from Walter Matthau to Ellen Burstyn to Richard Wilbur.
Apr 10, 202139:07
Episode 53: Mike Peros, biographer of Dan Duryea and José Ferrer & how Mike became a biographer
Mike Peros describes how he became a biographer, how he researched his biographies of José Ferrer and Dan Duryea, and much more.
Apr 03, 202139:08
Episode 52: A Plethora of Plath, or Why So Many Biographies
Through the examples of Marilyn Monroe, Amy Lowell, William Faulkner, and Sylvia Plath, I explain why so many biographies of the same subject are published.
Mar 27, 202146:09
Episode 51: Talking with Bob Batchelor about his book, biography—how it gets done and so much more.
A conversation with Bob Batchelor about his work from John Updike to Stan Lee and much more about biography and its place in the world and in our imaginations.
Mar 20, 202148:24
Episode 50: A talk about biography with John Matteson, author of A Worse Place Than Hell
A wide ranging discussion of the choices a biographer makes and how John Matteson put together his group of figures present at the battle of Frederickburg
Mar 13, 202146:19
Episode 49: A talk with Kathleen Spaltro, Author of The Great Lie: The Creation of Mary Astor
A wide ranging of discussion of a great character actress, active in both silent and sound film, her relationships with Ronald Colman and Bette Davis, and her career as a writer of novels and memoirs.
Mar 06, 202131:41
Episode 48: A discussion with Sydney Stern about her book, The Brothers Mankiewicz
What it takes to write a biography of the Mankiewicz brothers and other issues biographers encounter.
Feb 27, 202132:46
Episode 47: Justice to Charmian London, a writer who was much more than Jack London’s wife
A wide ranging discussion of Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s new biography, including reflections on the biographer as villain and how biography can be an act of restitution.
Feb 20, 202129:59
Episode 46: How I Became A Biographer: A conversation with Richard Bradford
I speak with Richard Bradford about how he became a biographer, the role biography should play in literary study, and why he chose to write about Ernest Hemingway, Patricia Highsmith and others.
Feb 13, 202139:55
Episode 45: William Faulkner’s Civil War, a talk with Michael Gorra about his new book
All things biographical and how Faulkner, the man and the writer, approached the Civil War.
Feb 06, 202139:17
Episode 44: The Past Is Never Dead
How does a biographer recreate the past the milieu of a subject’s life. I draw on my own experience in biographies of William Faulkner, Lillian Hellman, Rebecca West, Michael Foot, and others.
Jan 31, 202148:16
Episode 43: Talking with William Souder about Mad at the World, his new biography of John Steinbeck
William Souder explains his attraction to Steinbeck, what it takes to do a biography, the audience you can expect to reach as a biographer, and much much more.
Jan 23, 202138:38
Episode 42: Talking Faulkner biography with Larry Wells, author of the memoir, In Faulkner’s Shadow
A wide ranging discussion of Larry Wells’s memories of the Faulkner family, of Faulkner biographers, Joseph Blotner and Carvel Collins, and what it takes to research and write biography, which often feels like a Henry James story.
Jan 17, 202139:36
Episode 41: Heather Clark on her new Plath Biography.
We talk about how Heather Clark became interested in Plath, how she came to write the biography, how biography is a product of its age, and much more.
Jan 09, 202130:32
Episode 40: John Bryant on his new multi-volume Melville biography
A wide-ranging discussion of biography, how to work on literary figures Melville’s “black consciousness” and much more.
Jan 02, 202143:42
Part 3 of my interview with Alexis Coe
Slavery, capitalism, what went into the making of Washington’s life and those of his contemporaries—plus Alexis Coe puts THE BIG QUESTION to me.
Dec 29, 202015:22
Part 2 of my interview with Alexis Coe
More discussion of how to shake up the genre of presidential biography.
Dec 29, 202006:23
Part 1: Alexis Coe author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington
A wide ranging discussion of presidential biography and why Alexis Coe decided on what has been called a “historiographical intervention.”
Dec 29, 202009:32
Episode 38: Ten Tips For Enterprising Biographers
My experience over 40 years of contacting sources and how they responded, and how I got them to respond.
Dec 26, 202039:16
Episode 37: Why Plath: My Rollicking Interview with Emily Van Dyne about her forthcoming book
Much talk about Emily’s book, Loving Sylvia Plath, how students and other readers react to Plath, and the role biography plays in the mixed reactions to her work.
Dec 19, 202037:48
How it took 30 years to write 2 pages of The Life of William Faulkner
Discussing my experience and Faulkner’s in Hollywood and how all that gets on the page.
Dec 12, 202023:56
How it took 30 years to write 2 page of The Life of William Faulkner.
Describing my experience and Faulkner’s in Hollywood and how it all gets onto the page.
Dec 12, 202023:56
Episode 35
Talking with Peter K. Steinberg, co-editor of The Letters of Sylvia Plath.
Dec 04, 202031:13
Episode 34: Speaking with Celia Stahr about her splendid biography Frida in America
A conversation about Frida Kahlo and her three years in America with a great cast of characters, including Henry Ford, the Rockefeller’s, Georgia O’Keefee, Louis Nevelson and much, much more.
Nov 28, 202001:07:31
Episode 33: How I Became an Outlaw, Part 2: The Case of Michael Foot
Dealing with family and friends.
Nov 21, 202048:14
Episode 32: My conversation with Jonathan Alter about his new biography of Jimmy Carter.
We discuss the first full-length biography of Jimmy Carter, his achievements and failures, his rise from the bottom third to the top third of U.S. presidents, and much more about what a biography can accomplish.
Nov 14, 202003:02:30
How I became an outlaw biographer
Working on Lillian Hellman, Martha Gellhorn, Norman Mailer, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, Jill Craigie, Michael Foot, Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner.
Nov 07, 202052:57
Episode 30: The Biographical Novel: Who Cares?
I discuss novels about Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, Martha Gellhorn, H. G. Wells and mull over a universe in which biography and biographical novels can co-exist.
Oct 31, 202038:29
Episode 29: The Biography Police
An account of the campaigns orchestrated against biographers, using as examples biographies of T. E. Lawrence and Susan Sontag.
Oct 24, 202036:08
Reading and Writing Biography: A Primer
The sorry state of reviewing biography as reviewers turns in what amounts to book reports, letting down the genre of biography and those who practice it.
Oct 17, 202027:28
What a biographer knows.
I read and discuss a section from The Life of William Faulkner, pointing out my use of evidence, and concluding that I am my own best evidence.
Oct 10, 202051:14
What is a definitive biography?
I consider the question in the light of biographies of Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner, Olson Welles, John F. Kennedy, and others.
Oct 03, 202048:37
The Cruelty of Biography
A wide ranging discussion of the anathemas against biography perpetuated by modern writers, including Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Somerset Maugham, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Anthony Powell.
Sep 26, 202026:47
Episode 24: Psychologizing Biography
What does Psychologizing biography mean? How I have used it.
Sep 19, 202018:56
Reviewing Biography: The Case of Sylvia Plath
I read a review of my book, The Last Days of Sylvia Plath, in order to discuss the methodology of biography and of the reviewer.
Sep 12, 202020:52
Episode 22: The Case Against Biography
What to say about the epistemology of biography and why it is sometimes better to not have been there, but to see it all from afar and yet in closeup, as the past is recreated in the biographer’s imagination.
Sep 05, 202015:34
Words Often Applied to Biography
Authorized/Unauthorized; Gossipy/Salacious/; Plodding/Workmanlike/Revisionist
Aug 29, 202015:30
3 Questions You Should Never Ask About Biography
1. Is the subject worthy of a biography. 2. Is the subject too small? 3. Why another biography of?
Aug 22, 202014:03
Episode 19: Proposing a Biography
Why it is important to do a proposal? Why not just write the book? This podcast tells you why.
Aug 15, 202018:02
Episode 18: Biography, The Historical Present, and You
When does it make sense to use the present tense in a biography? Examples from the work of Noel Riley Fitch, William Faulkner, and yours truly.
Aug 08, 202019:55
Marilyn Monroe and the Idea of Biography
Biography is its own form of knowledge, a view that many readers and reviewers of biography are reluctant to acknowledge, or do not even consider.
Aug 01, 202023:52
Episode 16: My Listeners Respond
Listeners who want to know how to navigate the varied access to sources with different subjects, or how to present a new vision without new sources.
Jul 25, 202023:26
The Gaps and Bulges of Biography
What to do when not all parts of your biographical subject’s life are equal, when the first part of the life seems the most exciting, for example, or when interest only really builds in the last part of the subject’s life.
Jul 18, 202015:34
Episode 14: Who Deserves A Biography?
The answer to who deserves a biography is everyone, or anyone. It all depends on the materials you have, if the story moves you, and you know how to tell it.
Jul 11, 202007:33
Episode 13: Homage to Deirdre Bair and the Purpose of Biography
My tribute to one of the great biographers of our time and why her work matters, and why biography matters.
Jul 04, 202015:52
How I Became a Biographer
A quick explanation of how it all started with Marilyn Monroe.
Jun 27, 202014:33
Fair Use Biography: Forget about the Don’ts in Most Cases. Just go ahead.
My account for forty years of dealing with fair use, biographical subjects, and publishers.
Jun 21, 202031:50
The Whys and Wherefores of Documentary Biography
How dating all the days of a life provide a different way of approaching what is left out in other biographies.
Jun 14, 202009:34
Episode 9: How To Begin a Biography: The Case of William Faulkner
I look at how biographers have begun their biographies and the merits of different kinds of openings and why biography has been called factitious.
Jun 06, 202021:52
Episode 8: How to End a Biography, The Case of Sylvia Plath
I read from the last paragraphs of Plath biographies, commenting on them, and explain my own choices in writing American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath and The Last Days of Sylvia Plath.
May 30, 202022:04
Episode 7: Prefaces to Biography
Who is the biographer? And why does it matter?
May 24, 202027:34
Building a Better Biography: How to Capture the Whole Man
I give a sense of the interplay between Faulkner the man, his fiction, and his film writing.
May 16, 202024:26
Sylvia Plath, Meet Rebecca West
I explore why it is that Sylvia Plath never seemed to be aware of Rebecca West, a world class writer, who still has so much to say to the readers of Plath and of modern literature.
May 10, 202007:18
A Tale of Two Biographies: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath and The Life of William Faulkner
Why I wrote these two books and what in the world Plath and Faulkner have to do with the world around us.
May 02, 202048:34
Episode 3: Faulkner Preludes
How I began my work on Faulkner; what I mean by an intertextual biography; why Joan Crawford matters in a Faulkner biography; Faulkner as diplomat; what Faulkner to read first.
Apr 25, 202016:08
A Life in Biography: Episode 2: Why Care About William Faulkner?
A two-minute podcast. Call it “The Elevator Pitch.”
Apr 17, 202019:08
The Last Days of Sylvia Plath
In about twelve minutes I talk about what it was like in the last days of Sylvia Plath, how people have reacted to her death, and why I think it wasn’t all just sad.
Apr 12, 202012:23