Season of Saul
A review of the first volume of Zachary Leader's new biography of Saul Bellow.
Biography & Autobiography
"I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead." — Samuel Goldwyn
Life Was Fiction in Disguise
How James Merrill went from a poetic "finical interior decorator" to one of the most accomplished verse technicians of the 20th century.
Beyond the Shadow of Samuel Johnson
James Boswell’s restless curiosity and his desire to sit at the feet of greatness and listen made him the ur-TED talk audience member.
The Method Singer
In his new biography, John Szwed argues Billie Holiday was a method actor: she burrowed to the core of the song, determined what type of person might be voicing such sentiments in what kind of situation, and let that guide her interpretation of it.
A Citizen of the World: Orson Welles at 100
On the occasion of Orson Welles’s 100th birthday, an excerpt from a new biography by F.X. Feeney.
Reality Hunger: The Six Books of Karl Ove Knausgaard, Part III
Part 3 of a 3-Part Series
Reality Hunger: The Six Books of Karl Ove Knausgaard, Part II
Part 2 of a 3-Part Series
Reality Hunger: The Six Books of Karl Ove Knausgaard, Part I
Part 1 of a 3-Part Series
Around the World (or Part of It) with Sarah Thornton: 33 Artists in 3 Acts
Sarah Thornton's "33 Artists in 3 Acts" introduces readers to dozens of artists and a few curators operating at the upper echelons of the art business.
Minding Other People’s Business: On Dawn Powell
Powell had bad luck, and she received less attention than her male colleagues, but throughout it all, she kept writing.
Finding Susan
Daniel Schreiber’s "Susan Sontag," the first biography published since her death, offers an opportunity to reassess how we approach the last great public intellectual.
An African American Life?
“However magesterially this biography conventionalizes Brown’s life, it does so at some potential cost to Brown’s anomalousness.”
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