San Antonio College Library

Chronicles the historical evolution of the biography genre from ancient times to the early twenty-first century, considering questions about the purpose of biographies, their audience, the challenges of writing biographies, and their role in Western culture.

From the Publisher: Hermione Lee is one of the leading literary biographers in the English-speaking world, the author of widely acclaimed lives of Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf. Now, in this Very Short Introduction, Lee provides a magnificent look at the genre in which she is an undisputed master-the art of biography. Here Lee considers the cultural and historical background of different types of biographies, looks at the factors that affect biographers,...

Author of three memoirs of her own, Mary Karr synthesizes her expertise as graduate writing professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and "black belt sinner," providing an irreverent window into the mechanics and art of the form. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process. In addition, all those inside stories about...

A collection of essays presents two pieces on the ethics and values of nonfiction writing and continues with an examination of several contemporary biographers, discussions of the author's experiences, and a treatise on the role of fiction.

Whittemore in this companion volume to Pure lives probes the often complex motives behind the relationships of modern biographers to their subjects. Examines among others, Thomas Carlyle, Leslie Stephen, Sigmund Freud, Leon Edel, and Richard Ellmann as biographers.