Biography & Autobiography

"I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead." — Samuel Goldwyn

Sound Territory: The Genius of Ornette Coleman
Kathelin Gray reviews Maria Golia’s biography of composer and musician Ornette Coleman.
Kathelin GraySep 24, 2020
- Biography & Autobiography
- Music
Marvelous Belief
Cass R. Sunstein looks at Liel Leibovitz’s recently published biography of Stan Lee.
Cass R. SunsteinSep 21, 2020
- Biography & Autobiography
- Comics
“Unchangeably Appealing”: On Anatoly Liberman’s “Evgeny Boratynsky and the Russian Golden Age”
Sibelan Forrester reviews “Evgeny Boratynsky and the Russian Golden Age,” translated and annotated by Anatoly Liberman.
Sibelan ForresterSep 20, 2020
More Than “Tra-La-La”: On Vernon Duke, Igor Stravinsky, and Russian Musical Émigrés
Harlow Robinson turns his ear to “Taking a Chance on Love” by George Harwood Phillips and “In Stravinsky’s Orbit” by Klára Móricz.
Harlow RobinsonSep 15, 2020
Something That Would Be Remembered: On Two Women Noir Trailblazers
Kathleen Jones on two recent biographies of midcentury women of noir: producer Joan Harrison and actress Veronica Lake.
Kathleen B. JonesSep 14, 2020
Monstre Sacré: The Life and Times of Franklin E. Kameny
Michael Nava reviews “The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America,” Eric Cervini’s exhaustive new history.
Michael NavaAug 31, 2020
A Progenitor of Second-Wave Feminism: On Selina Todd’s “Tastes of Honey”
Simon Lee reviews Selina Todd’s biography on British playwright Shelagh Delaney.
Simon LeeAug 21, 2020
Wyatt Earp Does Not Rest in Peace
A pair of new books about US Marshal Wyatt Earp are now out. Only one of them shoots straight.
Allen BarraAug 19, 2020
- Biography & Autobiography
- History
An Experimental Biography: John Schad’s “Paris Bride: A Modernist Life”
Is John Schad’s family archive as fictitious as, say, Clarissa Dalloway? And does it matter?
Gerri KimberAug 15, 2020
- Biography & Autobiography
- Literary Criticism
Joe McCarthy Comes Alive
A new, generous biography of America’s midcentury human disaster.
Christopher M. EliasAug 2, 2020
- Biography & Autobiography
- Politics
On Dennis Cooper and Becoming-Nothing
Jonathan Alexander reviews "Wrong," the new biography of Dennis Cooper by Diarmuid Hester.
Jonathan AlexanderJul 29, 2020
A Means to an End: On Mary Oppen’s “Meaning a Life: An Autobiography”
Dan Friedman finds meaning in “Meaning a Life,” the autobiography of Mary Oppen.
Dan FriedmanJun 24, 2020
- Biography & Autobiography
- Poetry