November 2020 Theme: Author Biographies

Find a biography, or biographies of your favorite writers, and lets talk about them. Might be interesting to compare several biographies on the same subject.

I'll leave it up to you if you want to include memoirs or autobiographies. Might be interesting to compare a subject's bio with their memoir.

Some of my favorites in no particular order:

Desert Queen

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher

Becoming Dr. Seuss

Elegy for Iris

Lillian Gish

The Life of Irene Nemirovsky

Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure

Straight on Till Morning: Biography of Beryl Markham

You might as well live: the life and times of Dorothy Parker

Dawn Powell A Biography

Marmee and Louisa

One of my favorite authors is Agatha Christie and I often find myself reaching for one of her mysteries when I need a comfort read so I am going to read Agatha Christie: A Biography by Janet Morgan in November.

To be honest, I'm not a biography/autobiography fan at all, never read them. I will have to look long and hard for something to sustain me through this one!

>1 cindydavid4: Irene Nemirovsky is better known as Irene Sendler....I've read her biography--20+ years ago. I might give it another go!

>3 Tess_W: Ya know I used to feel the same way. So many I had read were either digging the dirt, or building a pedestal, or even worse, making it all about the biographer. Then I started finding ones that really told the story. Gertrude Bell is a perfect example of that, her biographer did an excellent job with a difficult subject. So I tried a few here and there; Im into silents so I also had a bio of Lillian Gish and of Mary Pickford, both very interesting.Im just really picky.

I also find biographies of authors are easier to take than of other professions - politicians, actors etc.

The last one I read was the Dr Seuss and oh man that was such an interesting read, He led such a long and interesting life, and had so many connections with people who influenced him. I loved the stories about how each book was written and drawn. I dunno,Im still a kid at heart (retired teacher and all that) so such things amaze me

I will probably be reading the new bio that just came out on Timothy Findley, a Canadian writer. Tiff:A Life of Timothy Findley I have read most of his books and am eager to get this one!

>4 Tess_W: Thx for the info of her name, that works for me coz its easier to spell!
I wonder if that is an older bio, this came out in 2007 (tho thinking about it, that is about 20 years!) Her daughters also write memoirs about their time growing up, and finding the satchel that held all her papers.... Fascinating and sad story.

>6 cindydavid4: I'm not sure there is biography titled Irene Sendler or not, but that's her name in the history books, at least in the U.S.

I've just picked up (way early) a book which I think will fit this theme very well: The Pen and the Brush: How Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth Century French Novels. Anka Muhlstein does mini bio's on Balzac, Zola, Proust, Huysmans and Maupassant and their use of artists and their masterpieces in defining setting and character in the novels of each of the authors. I'm reading about Balzac right now and the way in which he worked to paint pictures with his words. Really interesting, though I've only just started the book this morning.

>8 cfk: That sounds interesting!

I found Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy that I will read for this month.

Passionate Nomad: the life of Freya StarkShe began exploring the middle east in 1927, and continued to explore, for 60 years. She died just a few weeks after her 100 birthday in 1993, leaving behind some of the best travel narratives of her time. My favorute if hers is The Valley of the Assassins, which is a very good place to start,

>4 Tess_W: I believe Irena Sendler (of Irena Sendler and the children of the Warsaw ghetto), social worker, and Irene Nemirovsky, novelist, are two separate people. Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz. Sendler died in Warsaw in 2008 at age 98.

>12 kac522: That could be! I've read about Irene Sendler several times, and I know she was married at least 2 times and I thought that might have been one of her names.

>13 Tess_W: Glad you mentioned her tho; had not known of her heroism during that time. Need to read up more about her.

2021 is just around the corner and we need volunteers to host. Please come by: http://www.librarything.com/topic/324978 and choose a month to develp a theme and host the thread.

Just finished "The Pen and the Brush: How Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth-Century French Novels" by Anka Muhlstein. A compact little book built around the interactive relationships between artists and writers beginning in the 19th Century; she does mini bio's on Balzac, Zola, Proust, Huysmans and Maupassant and their use of artists and their masterpieces in defining setting and character in the novels of each of the authors.

"She leads the reader on a journey of spontaneous discovery as she explores how a great painting can open a mind and spark a fire."

>16 cfk: Sounds wonderful! Going to put this on my wish list.

I have changed my mind (lol) and am going to read a biography on the author Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) that I've located on my shelves and forgotten that I had. Somehow it slipped by my cataloguing.

There's this fellow who wrote a few Epistles, so I guess that qualifies Paul: A Biography (N.T. Wright). Nicholas Thomas ("Tom") Wright, sometimes nicknamed "New Testament" Wright, a retired Bishop of Durham, is definitely a bit too conservative for this More Light Presbyterian, but he is a highly regarded Pauline scholar and I've had this biography of Paul sitting around TBR since I bought it fairly hot off the press a couple years ago.

And I've got a few Brontë biographies sitting around that I've yet to get to. I'm particularly thinking of finally getting to Daphne du Maurier's Infernal World of Branwell Brontë. Of course, I've already read most of the really major Brontë biographies (most notably, in my opinion, Juliet Barker's and secondarily Rebecca Fraser's), but I've had du Maurier's sitting around TBR for ages. I've also got TBR Joan Bellamy's More Precious Than Rubies, a biography of Charlotte's friend Mary Taylor, a novelist, essayist, and travel writer.

Scads of other TBR-pile possibilities, most attractively (top of my head):

• Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin (started but not finished)
• Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories by Jenny Uglow (Brontë-related and started but not finished some years ago)
• In Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line by George Hutchinson
• Dust Tracks on a Road (autobiography) by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects by Deborah Lutz
• James Joyce by Richard Ellmann (reread after a half-century, now in a new/revised edition)
• Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann
• Norman Mailer: A Double Life by J. Michael Lennon
• Palimpsest: A Memoir by Gore Vidal
• some of Hermione Lee's biographies, most interestingly perhaps Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life or Willa Cather: Double Lives since these are two authors whose works are most completely familiar to me
• Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice by Sharon O'Brien

I think I've got a copy of Augustine's Confessions around somewhere and I'd like to get to a reread (after a half-century) and then watch St. Augustine's Confessions on my subscription to The Great Courses Plus; but I'm not sure I'll be able to put my finger on where the book is and I've got so much other TBR boxed/catalogued....

Hmmm, I have Stephen King Country on my tbr, but I'm not sure it's very historical. We'll see.

>18 CurrerBell: I did not realize du Maurier wrote a bio of Bromwell! I know little about him, know much more about his sisters of course. That looks like an interesting read

>18 CurrerBell:
>20 cindydavid4:

I also did not know du Maurier wrote a bio on Bronte. That is going on my wish list.

I think I'll read Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy by Nicholas Reynolds. Subtitle is Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961. Reynolds was the historian of the CIA Museum so I think this will be good and accurate.

I'm going with a bio of Agatha Christie too. My read will be Duchess of Death which is billed as the unauthorized biography of Agatha Christie. Not sure if that means it will differ from an authorized biography.

I've got a James Joyce biography (very short), Jane Austen biography (a little longer) and an Anthony Trollope biography (400+ pages). Time will tell....

I finished Thomas Mann, a short biography which looks mostly at his work, especially the novels. I learned quite a few things that will help me going on with Der Zauberberg.

I have completed my read of Agatha Christie, A Biography by Janet Morgan. This was an authorized biography but I was rather disappointed with it. Both the Agatha Christie and her family were extremely private and I believe this wish for privacy hampered the author in many ways. I was hoping that this book would give me some insight into her writing process but other than a few references as to real people and places that she used in her books, not much was added to my knowledge.

Well, maybe not terribly historical - unless you want to consider 20th century (published in 1999) historical

Stephen King Country / George Beahm
3.5 stars

This book is part-biography of Stephen King and partly looks at the places where King grew up, lived, spent time... and where he modelled some of the settings for his books. It includes photos of many of the places.

I liked it. It was published in 1999, so there is probably a lot more current stuff that could be added if it was updated. The book also looked at some of the movies that were made from King’s books. I particularly enjoyed the section on “The Shining” (Stephen and Tabitha lived in Colorado for a short time). I also love that they are both so supportive of libraries, to the tune of gifting a couple of local libraries a lot of money to help them out.

I read The Brontes and Their World by Phyllis Bentley a biography of all of the Bronte children: Branwell, Emily, Anne, and Charlotte. Two younger sisters died young and not much is written about them. This biography was greatly interesting. It included acquaintances of the Brontes as well as their business dealings and their plentiful "failures." I was surprised to learn that Wuthering Heights, claimed to be the favorite of all the sisters, was not commercially successful at all when published. I can say that the Bronte sisters did amazing things in their short lives considering the abject poverty they endured and lack of education that they received. 127 pages 5 stars

I decided to read The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life In Nature and the Birth of An American Classic by Michael Sims. Elwyn Brooks White was born into a wealthy family in Mount Vernon, N.Y. in 1899. The family lived on a small farm where E. B. (Andy) showed, even as a small child, a fascination with nature that remained throughout his life and became the basis of much of his writing including of course Charlotte's Web, published in 1952.

Loved that book, not too long ago I discovered his work in the NYer, and his books of essays. (loved Here Is New York the best. Still very readable and timely

I hope to get into Tiff: a life of Timothy Findely as soon as I get it!!! so Ill be a little late on that.

I just finished Christina Rossetti: A Divided Life by Georgina Battiscombe. Ms. Rossetti has always had a special place in my heart from a very little child. I loved listening to my mother read her poems to me, and later reading them for myself in my Childcraft 1949 edition. My grandson’s favorite is “The North Wind Doth Blow,” which I read to him from the same book.

Anyway, I appreciated that this author didn’t speculate about aspects of Christina’s life, which some other biographers apparently have done. The Rossetti family are an integral part of Christina’s life, of course, and were such interesting individuals in their own right. A good, solid story, well told.

Many years ago I read Kathleen Jones book, Learning Not To Be First and liked it very much as well.

>31 marell: Oh I loved her as a child as well, and have not read her in years. Should pick up the bio, or at least one of her collections.

>32 cindydavid4: You can find many of her poems in one place on Project Gutenberg. I always thought she wrote “The North Wind Doth Blow,” but she didn’t. Two of my children’s favorites she did write are “Mix a Pancake,” and “The City Mouse and the Garden Mouse.”

So much is not known about her but her poetry still speaks to me. I hope you discover some to cherish.

I just finished a reread (after nearly a half-century since college) of Augustine's Confessions using the translation by Maria Boulding (Amazon) since that's the one used in The Great Courses: St. Augustine's Confessions (Great Courses video), which I watched simultaneously chapter-by-chapter with my reading. Both 5*****.

The Boulding translation is conveniently available on Kindle with very nice linking to the translator's extensive footnoting.

I also chose to read about Agatha Christie this month. I’ve read a fair amount about her life but Duchess of Death filled in even more about her life than I knew previously. I enjoyed reading about Dame Agatha’s life in this account.

I'm just starting 'More Precious than Rubies', a biography of Mary Taylor who, along with Ellen Nussey, was one of Charlotte Brontë's two BFFs from Margaret Wooler's boarding school at Roe Head (not to be confused with the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge).

Taylor was the model for Rose Yorke in Shirley. She was the "go getter" who taught English in Germany, encouraged Charlotte to go to Brussels, and finally herself emigrated to New Zealand, where she earned enough money to return eventually to England and take up a career as a writer. Here are my reviews of her novel, Miss Miles; a series of her feminist essays, The First Duty of Women; and a travel book, Swiss Notes by Five Ladies.

This biography looks to be outstanding, just from my reading of the first chapter. It's fairly short, just about 150 pages, which isn't surprising considering the relative obscurity of its subject, so I'm hoping to get it finished before the month ends.

ETA: And I just finished this late Monday night, December 1. Short 5***** review, though it likely won't be of much interest to anyone who isn't quite familiar with the Brontes' lives (Charlotte's specifically) and definitely requires a knowledge of all of Charlotte's novels, not just Jane Eyre but also Villette, especially the very underrated Shirley, and even The Professor. You really should also be familiar with Taylor's own writing, especially her novel.

I'm just starting More Precious than Rubies, a biography of Mary Taylor who, along with Ellen Nussey, was one of Charlotte Brontë's two BFFs from Margaret Wooler's boarding school at Roe Head (not to be confused with the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge).

Taylor was the model for Rose Yorke in Shirley. She was the "go getter" who taught English in Germany, encouraged Charlotte to go to Brussels, and finally herself emigrated to New Zealand, where she earned enough money to return eventually to England and take up a career as a writer. Here are my reviews of her novel, Miss Miles; a series of her feminist essays, The First Duty of Women; and a travel book, Swiss Notes by Five Ladies.

This biography looks to be outstanding, just from my reading of the first chapter. It's fairly short, just about 150 pages, which isn't surprising considering the relative obscurity of its subject, so I'm hoping to get it finished before the month ends.

ETA: And I just finished this late Monday night, December 1. Short 5***** review, though it likely won't be of much interest to anyone who isn't quite familiar with the Brontes' lives (Charlotte's specifically) and definitely requires a knowledge of all of Charlotte's novels, not just Jane Eyre but also Villette, especially the very underrated Shirley, and even The Professor. You really should also be familiar with Taylor's own writing, especially her novel.

>37 CurrerBell: Looks interesting; I'd like to put it on my wishlist--do you have any more information about the book--is this the one by Joan Bellamy? Do have the publisher and/or publishing date? Details on LT seem sparse.

I read three short author biographies this month (well, one turned out NOT to be biography in the traditional sense):

1. Rebecca West by Fay Weldon



Disappointing read, because despite its label in the catalog, it was not a biography at all. Structured as letters from the author Fay Weldon to Rebecca West around the time she gave birth to her son, the letters deal mostly with West's relationship to H. G. Wells. Conversations are completely made-up between West and Wells, her mother, and her sister. Weldon mostly analyzes their relationship and attempts to give West encouragement. This is just completely speculative and got more irritating as the book wore on. Particularly irksome is that this was written only 2 years after West's death.

Here is Weldon's introduction/justification:

"I have no shame, though, in what comes next, of having simple made a lot up, of having invented conversations, of being a fly on the seaside boarding-house wall -- on the grounds that what is made up, invented, is often truer than what happens in reality: the latter, drifting, chaotic, without shape or form, and usually open to so many interpretations as to make nonsense of any attempt to understand or define from the outside what was actually going on in the inside.....Better, if the biographer has a glimmer of the single thin consistent thread that runs through a life, to give up fact and take to fiction. It is as honourable a course as any."

When I was finished, I realized it would have made an interesting play, where imagined dialogue and speculation are acceptable. But biography it is NOT.

2. James Joyce by John Gross



Small book (89 pages) that covers a lot of ground. Although biography is only one chapter, the events of James' life surface in the 3 chapters about his works. I can't comment on how well or thorough the writer is, but it did give me a good sense of what Joyce was about, what literary techniques and references he uses, and made him seem a little less obscure. Would have been good if there had been a final chapter summing up Joyce's influence on the 20th century.

3. Jane Austen by Carol Shields, part of the "Penguin Lives" series



Fairly decent and short biography. I enjoyed the way Shields weaves Austen's life through the works, although I can imagine if you have not read any of the novels, you would be missing quite a bit here. This is not a scholarly work; it relies heavily on Austen's surviving letters. Shields makes quite a few assumptions, but usually tells us when she is doing that. Overall an informative read for those who have read an Austen novel or two and would like a quick read about her life. The end of the book deals with Austen's illness. Shields wrote this book after her own cancer diagnosis, and just a couple of years before she died, and I think that struggle and sadness come through in the ending section.

>38 kac522: Here's a link to Abe, Kathy:

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-...

Looks like there's one moderately priced copy from an English seller (though the price goes up a bit because of shipping). The other two copies, from U.S. sellers, are a bit pricey for paperback, but this is a hard-to-come-by title. As for library availability, not very many in the U.S. according to WorldCat:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/more-precious-than-rubies-mary-taylor-friend-of-c...

>40 CurrerBell: Thanks for the details--I'll probably request it via ILL. Right now it's hit or miss with ILL, but I'll keep it in mind when more libraries are back open.

>39 kac522: Oh I loved her Stone Diaries I was so sad to hear of her passing. I may have to pick this one up

>42 cindydavid4: After I finished the book, I read some of the reviews on LT and there is quite a range of opinion about Shields' book. So if you are a major JA fan and have read a lot about her, this book may fall short. But I thought it was a good short introduction to Austen and her work.

Oh ok, thanks from the heads up. Yeah, probably wouldnt offer anything new; If I happen upon it Ill dive it a try

BTW thanks to all of you who participated in this thread. It was fun putting the Touchstone list together, and really fun finding more authors bios to read!!!

I am currently perusing " The future lasts forever" ( translated from French) by French Marxist Louis Althusser. Anyone here has heard of him and is interested in discussing his memories on world affairs?