Description
Book SynopsisIs literary biography widely read for popular, "prurient" reasons, or for "reputable" intellectual reasons? Leading critics and professional biographers here attempt to answer this and other questions by examining the biographies of such authors as Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley and others.
Trade Review`sprightly collection of essays' Sunday Times
`deftly edited ... the collection as a whole is refreshingly free from the excesses of lit-crit gobbledegook.' Literary Review
`excellent book of essays' New Statesman and Society
'a most attractive seminar on the art, or craft, of telling the story of story-tellers' existences' Valentine Cunningham, The Observer
'the best of these writers highlight what fun biography can be, and so shed light on a fascinating cultural phenomenon' Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
'sprightly collection of essays on the art of biography' Anthony Quinn, Sunday Times
'in this excellent book of essays 17 important biographers wrestle with their own practice' Kathryn Hughes, New Statesman & Society
'contains some excellent essays' Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph
...excellent book...The Art of Literary Biography offers an intriguing look at variety within the genre. * IsisKeith Peirson Scene Dec. 1995 *
it is of eminent appeal not only to academics and students of literature, formal or not, but should be must reading for journalists, essayists, writers and serious readers of all kinds. As a handbook on the theory of writing biographies, it is essential and one of the best books on the subject we have seen to date. * Scene *
this collection is notable in general for its cheerful indifference to theory ... There is a widespread awareness that most theoretical approaches do not describe or illuminate what biographers do ... lively collection. * Peter Hollindale, University of York, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLVIII, No. 189, Feb '97 *
an agreeable collection of essays ... with contributions from many distinguished practitioners ... This is an excellent collection which forces us to ponder the implications of the word 'art' in its title; for if biography can be so many kinds of art, what identity is it left with itself? * English Studies *
