The Biographer's Craft/Practical Advice on Gathering, Writing, Shaping and Polishing Biographical Material [Paperback]

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harpercollins (March 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060913878
• ISBN-13: 978-0060913878
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,860,714 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.