A Life in Biography

By Carl Rollyson

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 ... more

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FAQs about A Life in Biography:

How many episodes does A Life in Biography have?

The podcast currently has 224 episodes available.

A Life in Biography episodes:

November 28, 2020 Episode 34: Speaking with Celia Stahr about her splendid biography Frida in America
A conversation about Frida Kahlo and her three years in America with a great cast of characters, including Henry Ford, the Rockefeller’s, Georgia O’Keefee, Louis Nevelson and much, much more.
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1h 8min
November 21, 2020 Episode 33: How I Became an Outlaw, Part 2: The Case of Michael Foot
Dealing with family and friends.
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49min
November 14, 2020 Episode 32: My conversation with Jonathan Alter about his new biography of Jimmy Carter.
We discuss the first full-length biography of Jimmy Carter, his achievements and failures, his rise from the bottom third to the top third of U.S. presidents, and much more about what a biography can accomplish.
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3h 3min
November 07, 2020 How I became an outlaw biographer
Working on Lillian Hellman, Martha Gellhorn, Norman Mailer, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, Jill Craigie, Michael Foot, Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner.
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53min
October 31, 2020 Episode 30: The Biographical Novel: Who Cares?
I discuss novels about Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, Martha Gellhorn, H. G. Wells and mull over a universe in which biography and biographical novels can co-exist.
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39min
October 24, 2020 Episode 29: The Biography Police
An account of the campaigns orchestrated against biographers, using as examples biographies of T. E. Lawrence and Susan Sontag.
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37min
October 17, 2020 Reading and Writing Biography: A Primer
The sorry state of reviewing biography as reviewers turns in what amounts to book reports, letting down the genre of biography and those who practice it.
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28min
October 10, 2020 What a biographer knows.
I read and discuss a section from The Life of William Faulkner, pointing out my use of evidence, and concluding that I am my own best evidence.
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52min
October 03, 2020 What is a definitive biography?
I consider the question in the light of biographies of Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner, Olson Welles, John F. Kennedy, and others.
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49min
September 26, 2020 The Cruelty of Biography
A wide ranging discussion of the anathemas against biography perpetuated by modern writers, including Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Somerset Maugham, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Anthony Powell.
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27min

FAQs about A Life in Biography:

How many episodes does A Life in Biography have?

The podcast currently has 224 episodes available.