Description
Book SynopsisA good biography is a well-staged illusion. It creates - on paper - a vivid, rounded, and immediate sense of lived life. In contrast to purely fictional forms, biography writing does not allow total freedom to the biographer in the creative act. Ideally, a biography's backbone is formed by accurate historical facts. But its soul lies elsewhere. Since the concern is life, something more is needed: Nothing dry, cold or dead, but a vibrant impression of life that is left in the air after one turns over the last page. But how does a biographer do it? The way a biographer creates a subject is largely dictated by the historical distance between them. There are three types of distance in biographical writing: First, where the biographer and the subject personally know one another; second, where the biographer is a near contemporary of the subject; and third, where biographer and subject are distinctly separated, in some cases, by hundreds of years. This study explores how some of the most accomplished biographers manage to recreate life" across time and space. She closely examines Samuel Johnson's Life of Mr. Richard Savage, James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians, Michael Holroyd's Lytton Strachey, Park Honan's Jane Austen, and Andrew Motion's Keats.
Trade Review"Tekcan's initial question-asking what it is that brings life writing to life -- is an interesting one, and her case studies yield some glancing insights, particularly in the discussion of more recent biographies." -- Biography 34.4
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Eating and Drinking with the Subject: Johnson's Life of Savage and Boswell's Life of Johnson 2. Judas and the Frog Prince: Strachey's Eminent Victorians and Holroyd's Lytton Strachey 3. Too Far for Comfort: Honan's Jane Austen, Her Life and Motion's Keats Conclusion Bibliography Index
