The Biographer's Craft [Hardcover]

Milton Lomask (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Drawing on his experience as the biographer of several American figures, Lomask offers a practical manual for the beginning biographer and autobiographer. He outlines the scholarly apparatus neededquotes, notes, bibliographyand sketches the nature of the medium, selecting a subject, methods of finding and using sources, questions of style and tone. Lomask illustrates his points with examples from a variety of biographies and autobiographies, and concludes with advice on securing a publisher. This clear and simple book should be helpful both to the apprentice in and the student of the art. Milton Meltzer, New York
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 194 pages
• Publisher: Harper & Row; 1st edition (1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060155345
• ISBN-13: 978-0060155346
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,048,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth a look, November 9, 2005

By 

Anson Cassel Mills (Lake Santeetlah, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Biographer's Craft/Practical Advice on Gathering, Writing, Shaping and Polishing Biographical Material (Paperback)

This is a short book helpful in small ways. Lomask has a decent popular style, although he's overly enamored of the one-sentence paragraph and the rhetorical question. Occasionally he gives questionable advice, such as when he suggests filling out a subject's early life with guesses concealed in the subjunctive (99). Lomask is best at incorporating the advice of other biographers; in fact, the reader is often left with the impression that he could have done better by reading Leon Edel and Catherine Drinker Bowen in the first place.