Biography As High Adventure: Life-Writers Speak on Their Art [Paperback]

Stephen B. Oates (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this volume ten distinguished biographers discuss the principles and practices of their craft. The literary biographersPaul Mariani (William Carlos Williams), Mark Schorer (Sinclair Lewis), and Leon Edel (Henry James)stress the importance and the difficulty of locating a subject's inner life. The historians are more cautious. Barbara Tuchman frets about risking personal involvement with her subject; Frank Vandiver bristles at those who rummage in the unconscious. All agree that scholarship should be rigorous and exhaustive, choice of details selective, and subjects dramatized in the theater of their own time. Although omitting music, art, and science, this is a useful book whose statements are often graceful and occasionally impassioned. Arthur Waldhorn, English Dept., City Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr (June 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870235141
• ISBN-13: 978-0870235146
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,786,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine collection of essays, March 11, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: Biography As High Adventure: Life-Writers Speak on Their Art (Paperback)

These ten previously published essays may pique the interest of prospective "life-writers," although a majority of these pieces tend toward the theoretical rather than the practical--a circumstance no doubt arising from the fact that six treat the lives of literary figures. Although the writing is at least solid and is sometimes lively, my own preference in a collection of essays about biographical writing is the more engaging (and nearly contemporary) collection, William Zinsser, ed., Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography (New York: American Heritage, 1986).