Biography & Autobiography

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

Acquisition and Empire: On James Delbourgo’s “Collecting the World”
On the origins of the British Museum.
Suzanne FischerDec 10, 2017
“But Maybe?”: Immortality, Time, and Nabokov’s Dream Diary
Making sense of Nabokov’s dreams.
Andrea PitzerDec 4, 2017
- Biography & Autobiography
A Light on Vivian Maier
Emilie Bickerton reviews Pamela Bannos's "Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife."
Emilie BickertonNov 23, 2017
- Art & Architecture
- Biography & Autobiography
Zora Neale Hurston: “A Genius of the South”
John W. W. Zeiser reviews Peter Bagge's graphic biography "Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story."
John W. W. ZeiserNov 13, 2017
- Biography & Autobiography
- Comics
Wrapped in Furs: On Bunny Mellon, My Mother, and Women as Currency
Susan Zakin locates her mother’s story and a history of female struggle in Meryl Gordon’s biography, “Bunny Mellon: The Life of An American Style Legend.”
Susan ZakinOct 25, 2017
A Magnetic and Complicated Personality
A review of Harvey Sachs’s new biography of Arturo Toscanini.
Simon WilliamsOct 19, 2017
- Biography & Autobiography
- Music
The Great Silence: A New Biography of Jens Peter Jacobsen
Dustin Illingworth reviews a new biography of forgotten Danish master Jens Peter Jacobsen.
Dustin IllingworthOct 8, 2017
- Biography & Autobiography
I Am Something That You’ll Never Comprehend: Remembering Prince
Sara Scribner considers three books that try to get at the essence of Prince.
Sara ScribnerOct 6, 2017
On “Coming of Age”: Margaret Mead’s Correspondence and the Biographical Problem
Deborah Blum’s new biography of anthropologist Margaret Mead poses questions about the ethical underpinnings of early fieldwork and the genre of biography.
Megan TuslerSep 23, 2017
The Life, Death, and Afterlife of Kathy Acker
Matias Viegener talks to Chris Kraus about her new book, "After Kathy Acker."
Matias ViegenerSep 11, 2017
- Art & Architecture
- Biography & Autobiography
Please Be Nice to Me: Navigating History, Mystery, and Desire in Chris Kraus’s “After Kathy Acker”
In the first authorized biography of Kathy Acker, Chris Kraus digs beneath the myths around the avant-garde heroine.
Anna IoanesSep 11, 2017
- Biography & Autobiography
- Gender & Sexuality
Against the Devil: The Tormented Life of Czesław Miłosz
Maria Rybakova reflects on the tormented life of Czesław Miłosz, as told in a new biography by Andrzej Franaszek.
Maria RybakovaSep 9, 2017