A Life in Biography
By Carl Rollyson
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Episodes: 215
Description
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 Monroe to Susan Sontag, and much more.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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A talk with Jared Stearns about his new biography of Marilyn Chambers and the world of hardcore
|
May 05, 2024 |
|
All about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton with the Incomparable Roger Lewis
|
Apr 28, 2024 |
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The Existential Loneliness of the Long Distance Biographer
|
Apr 22, 2024 |
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Malcolm W. Browne reporting from Vietnam and other biographical matters with Ray Boomhower
|
Apr 14, 2024 |
|
Biography in the Prison House of Modernism, Part 2
|
Apr 07, 2024 |
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A new Greta Garbo biography by Lois Banner, with new sources and insights
|
Mar 23, 2024 |
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Mary Dearborn discusses her new biography of Carson McCullers
|
Mar 17, 2024 |
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Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” and the Prison House Modernism
|
Mar 10, 2024 |
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Authors vanish after they die and are revived. A talk with the biographer of Carolyn Wells.
|
Mar 03, 2024 |
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A rollicking interview with Paul Alexander about his new biography of Billie Holiday.
|
Feb 25, 2024 |
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My listeners respond
|
Feb 18, 2024 |
|
Why Biography Doesn’t Belong
|
Feb 11, 2024 |
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A talk with Marian Janssen, biographer of Carolyn Kizer, one of the wild women of American poetry
|
Feb 04, 2024 |
|
How close is too close when it comes to the biography of your subject?
|
Jan 28, 2024 |
|
You’ve heard of Chaplin and Keaton, but Al Christie?—the subject of Mark Kearney’s new biography
|
Jan 21, 2024 |
|
Tim Christian discusses his audiobook version of Hemingway’s Widow
|
Jan 15, 2024 |
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The author records his book: Tim Christian on Hemingway’s Widow
|
Jan 14, 2024 |
|
Biographer Ruth Laney discusses her decades of work on the life and world of Ernest J. Gaines
|
Jan 07, 2024 |
|
Whose biography is it, anyway? My answer to Joyce Carol Oates
|
Dec 24, 2023 |
|
Honey Traps! Why spies make good if spooky biographical subjects.
|
Dec 17, 2023 |
|
A slightly trimmed version of my talk with Chris Wallace about biographers and political lives
|
Dec 11, 2023 |
|
A conversation with Chris Wallace about her book Political Lives and how biographers get the story
|
Dec 10, 2023 |
|
Come On! Get Happy! How Summer Stock with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly got made
|
Dec 03, 2023 |
|
Danny Fingeroth’s new biography of Jack Ruby
|
Nov 22, 2023 |
|
Listening to Larry Lockridge, Part 2, biographer turned novelist
|
Nov 13, 2023 |
|
What happened when T. S. Matthews decided to write the first biography of T. S. Eliot? Find out!
|
Nov 12, 2023 |
|
The role of place and the place of the biographer’s biography in biography
|
Nov 11, 2023 |
|
Larry Lockridge discusses his biography of his father Ross Lockridge and his novel Raintree County
|
Nov 06, 2023 |
|
Talking with Dan Van Neste about Warner Baxter, the “accidental star”
|
Nov 05, 2023 |
|
The Warner Brothers: How They Became That Way
|
Oct 29, 2023 |
|
Paula Broussard and Lisa Royére discuss Eleanor Powell: Born to Dance
|
Oct 22, 2023 |
|
Eric Laursen talks about his biography of Alex Comfort & The Joy of Sex
|
Oct 15, 2023 |
|
Sylvia Plath Day by Day, volume 1: Why did I do it. What’s in it?
|
Oct 12, 2023 |
|
A new biography of Betty Friedan and why it matters.
|
Oct 01, 2023 |
|
An Emergency Podcast: What To Do When You Don’t Have Primary Sources
|
Sep 27, 2023 |
|
A preview of coming attractions and of my work in progress on presidential biography
|
Sep 24, 2023 |
|
FDR Unmasked: What the Biographers Missed
|
Sep 17, 2023 |
|
Fair Use Biography
|
Jul 27, 2023 |
|
Finding Ursula Parrott: One biographer’s quest.
|
Jul 16, 2023 |
|
The Different Discourses of Biographers and Subjects
|
Jul 09, 2023 |
|
The Way I Work
|
Jul 02, 2023 |
|
What It Takes To Do Biography
|
Jun 25, 2023 |
|
Gabriella Kelly-Davies on writing biographies of scientists and doctors and much more
|
Jun 10, 2023 |
|
What memory tells us about biography and doesn’t.
|
Jun 03, 2023 |
|
The nature of literary power, who holds it, and how the biographer should understand it.
|
Jun 03, 2023 |
|
The Power of the Living Biographical Subject v The Power of the Biographer
|
May 23, 2023 |
|
Dylan Thomas and why biography matters, with a cameo performance by Marilyn Monroe
|
May 14, 2023 |
|
Why a biographer would go ahead when the subject is fiercely resistant
|
May 07, 2023 |
|
Samuel R. Delany refuses to give up on Susan Sontag’s biographers
|
Apr 30, 2023 |
|
Seamus Heaney in America with biographer Ed O’Shea
|
Apr 30, 2023 |
|
What Does It Mean to Know a Biographical Subject
|
Apr 23, 2023 |
|
Round 5 of The Biographer and His Critic
|
Apr 15, 2023 |
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Round 4: The Biographer and His Critic
|
Apr 08, 2023 |
|
The Biographer and His Critic: Round 3
|
Apr 01, 2023 |
|
A Collector’s Item: A Dialogue About Biography
|
Mar 25, 2023 |
|
The Ethics of Biography and a Confession
|
Mar 18, 2023 |
|
Finding Jackie: A conversation with Oline Eaton about her new biography
|
Feb 11, 2023 |
|
Remembering a great friend & biographer with Mary Dearborn, Diana Jacobs, Sydney Stern, Amanda Vaill
|
Feb 08, 2023 |
|
The tables are turned: Author and publisher Karen Christensen interviews me!
|
Feb 01, 2023 |
|
Dealing with sources, people and archive, the good,, the bad, and the ugly, with Doug Munro
|
Jan 29, 2023 |
|
The History Wars! In Australia, but it happens here too. Biographers Beware
|
Jan 22, 2023 |
|
A new biography of William Faulkner’s great-grandfather, avatar and precursor
|
Jan 14, 2023 |
|
Doug Munro on Biography and History: Where They Meet and Deviate
|
Jan 08, 2023 |
|
Choosing My Subjects: A Fireside Chat
|
Dec 31, 2022 |
|
Two Mailer biographers discuss why he still matters, and why they write about him.
|
Dec 18, 2022 |
|
Mahala Stripling on her biography of Richard Selzer, the doctor who made an art of medicine
|
Dec 10, 2022 |
|
A talk with Bob Batchelor about his new biography of Jim Morrison, The Doors, and the Sixties
|
Nov 27, 2022 |
|
A conversation with Norman Lock about Voices in the Dead House, novels, biography, and much more
|
Nov 19, 2022 |
|
Ellen Brown talks about her work in progress, a biography of Tennessee Williams
|
Nov 13, 2022 |
|
Biography By the Day
|
Nov 05, 2022 |
|
How Diane Diekman became a biographer and her work in progress on Randy Travis
|
Oct 29, 2022 |
|
Becoming You
|
Oct 22, 2022 |
|
How James Meredith broke the segregation barrier at Ole Miss
|
Oct 08, 2022 |
|
Allison Gilbert & Julia Scheeres: Listen, World! Their biography of the intrepid Elsie Robinson
|
Oct 01, 2022 |
|
Work in Progress: A Biography of Marilyn Chambers
|
Sep 24, 2022 |
|
A conversation to Jerry Muller about Jacob Taubes, the Professor of Apocalypse
|
Sep 19, 2022 |
|
A talk with Beverly Gray about Roger Corman, Ron Howard, and what it takes to do a biography
|
Sep 10, 2022 |
|
A Biography of Jack Ruby, you say?
|
Sep 03, 2022 |
|
Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and the Biographical Quest
|
Aug 20, 2022 |
|
A talk about Jackie Ronne, polar explorer with her accomplished biographer, Joanna Kafarowski
|
Aug 06, 2022 |
|
Why another biography of Ernest Hemingway?
|
Jul 30, 2022 |
|
Coming attractions
|
Jul 24, 2022 |
|
A conversation with Jim Dougherty about his wife’s great biography of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich
|
Jul 09, 2022 |
|
A conversation with Andrew Wilson about Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Patricia Highsmith & more
|
Jul 02, 2022 |
|
A Biography in Progress: Beth Phillips discusses Clifford Odets and why his work and life matter
|
Jun 26, 2022 |
|
The Biography I did not write
|
Jun 18, 2022 |
|
To quote Robert Caro: “Turn Ever Page”
|
Jun 11, 2022 |
|
A talk with Alison Macor about her new book, The Making of The Best Years of Our Lives
|
Jun 04, 2022 |
|
War, trauma, and art in the life of Rudolf H. Sauter, and the process of biography
|
May 28, 2022 |
|
A Faulknerian novel in which Faulkner appears
|
May 21, 2022 |
|
The Gatekeepers
|
May 12, 2022 |
|
A conversation with Michelle Morgan one of the masters of Marilyn Monroe biography
|
May 07, 2022 |
|
A conversation with David O. Stewart about the worlds of biography and fiction
|
Apr 30, 2022 |
|
A talk with master biographer, Nigel Hamilton.
|
Apr 23, 2022 |
|
Cynthia Ozick and “The Biographer’s Hat”
|
Apr 16, 2022 |
|
Why John C. Calhoun still matters: a talk with his biographer, Robert Elder
|
Apr 08, 2022 |
|
The poetry of biography, and the biography of poetry, with Iris Jamahl Dunkle
|
Apr 02, 2022 |
|
Talking with Lee Kravetz about his fresh, intriguing depiction of Sylvia Plath and her world
|
Mar 27, 2022 |
|
A conversation with David Beveridge, narrator of volume 2 of The Life of William Faulkner
|
Mar 19, 2022 |
|
The Story of My Psychoanalysis and Sylvia Plath
|
Mar 12, 2022 |
|
Hemingway’s Widow: A Conversation with Timothy Christian about his new biography of Mary Hemingway
|
Mar 05, 2022 |
|
A conversation with Kathleen Brady about her biography of the saints of Assisi: Francis and Clare
|
Feb 26, 2022 |
|
Another biography for Black History Month.
|
Feb 23, 2022 |
|
A conversation with James McGrath Morris, author of Tony Hillerman: A Life
|
Feb 19, 2022 |
|
A Biography of the Day for Black History Month
|
Feb 17, 2022 |
|
An unusual group biography: The Psychologies of Political Exile: From Ovid to the Dalai Lama
|
Feb 12, 2022 |
|
A conversation with Ralph Eubanks, author of A Place Like Mississippi
|
Feb 05, 2022 |
|
Don’t Be Afraid! We’re talking theory here.
|
Feb 03, 2022 |
|
A lively talk with Steve Paul about Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S Connell
|
Jan 29, 2022 |
|
Biography of the Day, Part 3
|
Jan 26, 2022 |
|
Who is Assia Wevill? Why Does She Matter?
|
Jan 22, 2022 |
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The Biography of the Day, Part 2
|
Jan 19, 2022 |
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Who is Assia Wevill? Why She Matters. Part 1
|
Jan 15, 2022 |
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The Biography of The Day, Part 1
|
Jan 14, 2022 |
|
Reposting, due to technical difficult. My interview with Debby Applegate about Madam
|
Jan 12, 2022 |
|
Reposting this episode in case you had trouble hearing Debby Applegate talk about Polly Adler
|
Jan 12, 2022 |
|
Plutarch Redux: Parallel Poems in the Age of Trump by Robert Hamblin
|
Jan 08, 2022 |
|
Who’s Afraid of Theory?
|
Jan 01, 2022 |
|
Christmas 1942 at the Faulkners
|
Dec 25, 2021 |
|
Mystery Podcast #1: Every biography is an autobiography
|
Dec 18, 2021 |
|
A Conversation with Cathy Curtis about her new biography of Elizabeth Hardwick
|
Dec 11, 2021 |
|
A talk with Hilary Holladay about her stirring new biography of Adrienne Rich
|
Dec 05, 2021 |
|
What’s New in Biography for 2021: The Unknowns and the Knowns
|
Dec 04, 2021 |
|
Ray Boomhower talks about his biography of acclaimed war correspondent, Richard Tregaskis
|
Nov 20, 2021 |
|
Gay Faulkner and Biography, how the story gets told, and why.
|
Nov 13, 2021 |
|
What’s New in Biography, 2021: Three Well Worn Biographical Subjects
|
Nov 06, 2021 |
|
Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and most of all Assia Wevill in a new light in Capriccio
|
Oct 31, 2021 |
|
The Business of Biography: An Addendum, courtesy of Karen Christensen
|
Oct 23, 2021 |
|
The Role Of Interpretation: A Discussion with the Inimitable Hans Renders
|
Oct 21, 2021 |
|
The Answer to One Biography is Another Biography
|
Oct 16, 2021 |
|
The Answer to One Biography is Another Biography
|
Oct 16, 2021 |
|
A conversation with Joseph McBride about Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge
|
Oct 09, 2021 |
|
A Capsule History of The Biographical Novel with Michael Lackey
|
Oct 02, 2021 |
|
What’s New in Biography, Part 3: Show Business and the Archives
|
Sep 25, 2021 |
|
A talk about a great figure in the Civil Rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer.
|
Sep 18, 2021 |
|
What’s New in Biography, Part 2
|
Sep 11, 2021 |
|
Part 1: What’s New In Biography
|
Sep 04, 2021 |
|
Season 2, Episode 1: A Preview of Coming Attractions
|
Aug 28, 2021 |
|
Part 5 of my conversation with Tim Christian and Carol Sklenicka about the business of biography
|
Aug 20, 2021 |
|
Part 4 of a discussion of the principles, practices and mechanics of biography
|
Aug 14, 2021 |
|
A conversation with Susan Ronald about her new biography about Joseph Kennedy, The Ambassador
|
Aug 07, 2021 |
|
Talking with Connie Palmen about her biographical novel, written in the voice of Ted Hughes
|
Aug 04, 2021 |
|
A talk with Jerome Charyn about his novel, Sergeant Salinger, and the aims of biographical fiction.
|
Aug 01, 2021 |
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Part 3 of our discussion on the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography
|
Jul 31, 2021 |
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More with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka about the principles, practices & mechanics of biography
|
Jul 24, 2021 |
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Episode 66: The Principles & Practices of Biography: A Talk with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka
|
Jul 17, 2021 |
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Episode 65: Biography and the Hermeneutic Circle
|
Jul 10, 2021 |
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Episode 64: Janet Malcolm and the Black Art of Biography
|
Jul 03, 2021 |
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A Life in Biography (Trailer)
|
Jun 28, 2021 |
|
Episode 63: Talking with Carol Sklenicka about her biography of Alice Adams
|
Jun 27, 2021 |
|
Episode 62: A Talk with Kai Bird about his new Shakespearean/Faulknerian biography of Jimmy Carter
|
Jun 19, 2021 |
|
Episode 61: Biography Anne Sebba discussing Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy
|
Jun 12, 2021 |
|
Episode 60: The Case for Literary Prurience
|
Jun 05, 2021 |
|
Episode 59: Biographology
|
May 29, 2021 |
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Episode 58: The Roth/Bailey Uproar
|
May 22, 2021 |
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Talking with Gail Crowther about her new book on Plath & Sexton, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz
|
May 08, 2021 |
|
Episode 56: A talk with Ira Nadel about Philip Roth, Leonard Cohen, and authorized/unauthorized bios
|
May 01, 2021 |
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Episode 55: Tales Told Out of School, Part 2: 40 Years of Interviewing
|
Apr 17, 2021 |
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Episode 54, Part 1: Tales Told Out of School: 40 Years of Interviews
|
Apr 10, 2021 |
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Episode 53: Mike Peros, biographer of Dan Duryea and José Ferrer & how Mike became a biographer
|
Apr 03, 2021 |
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Episode 52: A Plethora of Plath, or Why So Many Biographies
|
Mar 27, 2021 |
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Episode 51: Talking with Bob Batchelor about his book, biography—how it gets done and so much more.
|
Mar 20, 2021 |
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Episode 50: A talk about biography with John Matteson, author of A Worse Place Than Hell
|
Mar 13, 2021 |
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Episode 49: A talk with Kathleen Spaltro, Author of The Great Lie: The Creation of Mary Astor
|
Mar 06, 2021 |
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Episode 48: A discussion with Sydney Stern about her book, The Brothers Mankiewicz
|
Feb 27, 2021 |
|
Episode 47: Justice to Charmian London, a writer who was much more than Jack London’s wife
|
Feb 20, 2021 |
|
Episode 46: How I Became A Biographer: A conversation with Richard Bradford
|
Feb 13, 2021 |
|
Episode 45: William Faulkner’s Civil War, a talk with Michael Gorra about his new book
|
Feb 06, 2021 |
|
Episode 44: The Past Is Never Dead
|
Jan 31, 2021 |
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Episode 43: Talking with William Souder about Mad at the World, his new biography of John Steinbeck
|
Jan 23, 2021 |
|
Episode 42: Talking Faulkner biography with Larry Wells, author of the memoir, In Faulkner’s Shadow
|
Jan 17, 2021 |
|
Episode 41: Heather Clark on her new Plath Biography.
|
Jan 09, 2021 |
|
Episode 40: John Bryant on his new multi-volume Melville biography
|
Jan 02, 2021 |
|
Part 3 of my interview with Alexis Coe
|
Dec 29, 2020 |
|
Part 2 of my interview with Alexis Coe
|
Dec 29, 2020 |
|
Part 1: Alexis Coe author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington
|
Dec 29, 2020 |
|
Episode 38: Ten Tips For Enterprising Biographers
|
Dec 26, 2020 |
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Episode 37: Why Plath: My Rollicking Interview with Emily Van Dyne about her forthcoming book
|
Dec 19, 2020 |
|
How it took 30 years to write 2 pages of The Life of William Faulkner
|
Dec 12, 2020 |
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How it took 30 years to write 2 page of The Life of William Faulkner.
|
Dec 12, 2020 |
|
Episode 35
|
Dec 04, 2020 |
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Episode 34: Speaking with Celia Stahr about her splendid biography Frida in America
|
Nov 28, 2020 |
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Episode 33: How I Became an Outlaw, Part 2: The Case of Michael Foot
|
Nov 21, 2020 |
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Episode 32: My conversation with Jonathan Alter about his new biography of Jimmy Carter.
|
Nov 14, 2020 |
|
How I became an outlaw biographer
|
Nov 07, 2020 |
|
Episode 30: The Biographical Novel: Who Cares?
|
Oct 31, 2020 |
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Episode 29: The Biography Police
|
Oct 24, 2020 |
|
Reading and Writing Biography: A Primer
|
Oct 17, 2020 |
|
What a biographer knows.
|
Oct 10, 2020 |
|
What is a definitive biography?
|
Oct 03, 2020 |
|
The Cruelty of Biography
|
Sep 26, 2020 |
|
Episode 24: Psychologizing Biography
|
Sep 19, 2020 |
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Reviewing Biography: The Case of Sylvia Plath
|
Sep 12, 2020 |
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Episode 22: The Case Against Biography
|
Sep 05, 2020 |
|
Words Often Applied to Biography
|
Aug 29, 2020 |
|
3 Questions You Should Never Ask About Biography
|
Aug 22, 2020 |
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Episode 19: Proposing a Biography
|
Aug 15, 2020 |
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Episode 18: Biography, The Historical Present, and You
|
Aug 08, 2020 |
|
Marilyn Monroe and the Idea of Biography
|
Aug 01, 2020 |
|
Episode 16: My Listeners Respond
|
Jul 25, 2020 |
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The Gaps and Bulges of Biography
|
Jul 18, 2020 |
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Episode 14: Who Deserves A Biography?
|
Jul 11, 2020 |
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Episode 13: Homage to Deirdre Bair and the Purpose of Biography
|
Jul 04, 2020 |
|
How I Became a Biographer
|
Jun 27, 2020 |
|
Fair Use Biography: Forget about the Don’ts in Most Cases. Just go ahead.
|
Jun 21, 2020 |
|
The Whys and Wherefores of Documentary Biography
|
Jun 14, 2020 |
|
Episode 9: How To Begin a Biography: The Case of William Faulkner
|
Jun 06, 2020 |
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Episode 8: How to End a Biography, The Case of Sylvia Plath
|
May 30, 2020 |
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Episode 7: Prefaces to Biography
|
May 24, 2020 |
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Building a Better Biography: How to Capture the Whole Man
|
May 16, 2020 |
|
Sylvia Plath, Meet Rebecca West
|
May 10, 2020 |
|
A Tale of Two Biographies: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath and The Life of William Faulkner
|
May 02, 2020 |
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Episode 3: Faulkner Preludes
|
Apr 25, 2020 |
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A Life in Biography: Episode 2: Why Care About William Faulkner?
|
Apr 17, 2020 |
|
The Last Days of Sylvia Plath
|
Apr 12, 2020 |