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A Magnetic and Complicated Personality
A review of Harvey Sachs’s new biography of Arturo Toscanini.
Biography & Autobiography
"I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead." — Samuel Goldwyn
The Great Silence: A New Biography of Jens Peter Jacobsen
Dustin Illingworth reviews a new biography of forgotten Danish master Jens Peter Jacobsen.
I Am Something That You’ll Never Comprehend: Remembering Prince
Sara Scribner considers three books that try to get at the essence of Prince.
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.
The Life, Death, and Afterlife of Kathy Acker
Matias Viegener talks to Chris Kraus about her new book, "After Kathy Acker."
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.
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.
An Empire of Missed Opportunities
Mario Cuomo is a promising subject for a biography, but this slim book fails to get him either as a politician or a person, says our reviewer.
On Not Knowing Yourself: What’s Adam Phillips Saying About Life Story?
Brandon Kreitler on the problem of biography in the wake of Freud.
A Silent Storm: Art, Obsession, Death, and Marcel Marceau
Melynda Fuller appreciates “A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause,” an extended essay on Marcel Marceau by Shawn Wen.
Delectatio Morosa: On Fleur Jaeggy’s “These Possible Lives”
Emily LaBarge is transported by “These Possible Lives,” a collection of essays by Fleur Jaeggy.
Hampering Threadlike Pressure: A New Biography of George Eliot
Paul Delany reviews a new biography of George Eliot.
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