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.
You think you know the Plath story? Ah, but who gets to tell it, and why do they do so, and how does someone like Ted Hughes commandeer the narrative?
What happens when a writer is hired to do a biographical novel seeking to prove Shakespeare was not Shakespeare, and how years later, the project becomes two books of nonfiction and fiction
Marcia Biderman writes biography like a mystery story. There is much to learn from her.
An important Faulkner critic and biographer introduces us to new way of understanding Faulkner, his fiction, and his life
A loading issue made me repost this exciting talk with Roger Lewis.
How does a biographer deal with the world of pornography and so-called porn stars. Jared Stearns knows how in his biography, Pure: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers.
Why Roger Lewis decided to write about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in a biography that refuses to be chronological.
This podcast is not as pretentious or self-pitying as you might suppose.
Ray Boomhower talks about what it is like to be a journalist in Vietnam and about what it is like writing biographies of journalists.
I had fun with this one. I really let it rip, if I do say so myself.
Lois Banner, biographer of Marilyn Monroe, turns to Garbo, learns Swedish, and discovers all sorts of important sources not to be found in previous biographies.
Mary Dearborn does a valiant job of dealing with my interruptions in our discussion of her splendid biography of Carson McCullers.
You might want to read Plath's poem “Mirror” as I explain my reactions to it as a biographer.
How Rebecca Rego Barry discovered Carolyn Wells, and why she wrote a biography of a forgotten literary figure, and how she did it.
Paul Alexander talks about his new state of the art biography of Billie Holiday. I listened and I learned.
A rambling meditation on the biographer as exile.
A talk with the delightful Marian Janssen who describes her career as a biographer and why she chose to write about the American poet Carolyn Kizer.
I explain what happened when I became part of the lives of my two subjects while researching and writing To Be a Woman: The Life of Jill Craigie and A Private Life of Michael Foot
Al Christie: Hollywood's Forgotten Film Pioneer by Mark Kearney. A wide ranging discussion of a pioneer Hollywood filmmaker, how to write his biography, and what implications there are for biographers of film figures.
How to do a biography as an audiobook
Tim Christian describes the process of doing an audiobook, with some very specific advice and technical specifications.
Cherie Quarters: The Place and People That Inspire Ernest J. Gaines: biography, memoir, history, and an evocation of the material world out of which a great American writer fashioned his fiction.
A brief podcast, what you might call a short snort, about those who malign biography.
A talk with Henry Schlesinger about his book on Honey Traps and the biographies of alluring spies.
What happens when the biographer becomes part of the story? Chris Wallace shows us in her unique book, Political Lives.
A discussion of a unique book by Chris Wallace, a journalist turned scholar, and how biographers interact with their subjects.
Join David Fantle and Tom Johnson for a lively discussion of the backstory and performances and production of the MGM musical, Summer Stock
How to deal with a figure so involved with conspiracy theories: What does a biography have to add to history?
What happens when a biographer turns from the themes of his biography to a series of novels that are biographical and then some.
A conversation with Karen Christensen about her edition of Writing The Great Tom as well as her own work on a biography of Valerie Eliot.
An example from my Lillian Hellman biography.
Listen to a fascinating discussion of how biographers deal with success and suicide and what happens when you discover details that fundamentally alter what is known about your subject.
Why is it that some important actors are remembered and not others? Find out by listening to this discussion about Dan Van Neste's biography of Warner Baxter.
Movie making in Hollywood's heyday, but also much that applies to today, to Netflix, Amazon, and the world of streaming
Two biographers who befriended their subject and lived to tell an inspiring tale of a life well lived and a biography well written.
Sexologist, gerontologist, novelist, poet, anarchist—just some of the work that Alex Comfort accomplished, the subject of a brilliant new biography.
A podcast that reflects on how I got started on studying Sylvia Plath and why I've written so many books about her.
Rachel Shteir takes us inside of making of her Jewish Lives biography of the author of The Feminine Mystique
My response to an email asking me for help
Forthcoming podcasts on new biographies of Betty Friedan, Warner Baxter, Alex Comfort, Eleanor Powell, Jack Ruby, T. S. Eliot and my working in progress on presidential biography
My conversation with neurologist Steven Lomazow about his revelatory book about FDR and the impact of his health on biographies of Roosevelt
Just remember: You are the one in charge of fair use. Don't give your rights away.
My talk with Marsha Gordon about her sensational new biography of an important writer you probably have never heard of.
Knowing your subject may mean knowing his or her discourse, and the same can be said of reading biographies when considering the voices of biographer and subject.
How I go about each day as a biographer, the sources I use, as I assemble my own archive and write my biography—in this case the one I'm working on now: Ronald Colman: Hollywood's Gentleman Hero
A wide ranging discussion of how to write about science and medicine in a biographical narrative, with some talk of other biographers including Kai Bird and Hermione Lee
A continuation of the previous podcast about the variables in understanding a writer and his world.
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