A Life in Biography

Cynthia Ozick and “The Biographer’s Hat”

16 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when biographers become the subjects of fiction

Why John C. Calhoun still matters: a talk with his biographer, Robert Elder

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There is much more to Calhoun, that proponent of slavery, than you might imagine.

The poetry of biography, and the biography of poetry, with Iris Jamahl Dunkle

02 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The poet as biographer and the biographer as poet

Talking with Lee Kravetz about his fresh, intriguing depiction of Sylvia Plath and her world

27 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A follow up to my New York Sun review of Lee Kravetz’s marvelously inventive novel about Sylvia Plath and the conditions of her life and her creativ...

A conversation with David Beveridge, narrator of volume 2 of The Life of William Faulkner

19 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What goes into an audiobook: the commitment, the performance, the technical details and equipment, and why, in this case, it matters that we hear Faul...

The Story of My Psychoanalysis and Sylvia Plath

12 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An excerpt from my work in progress, The Making of Sylvia Plath

Hemingway’s Widow: A Conversation with Timothy Christian about his new biography of Mary Hemingway

05 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A conversation with Timothy Christian, who provides new insight into the Hemingway marriage, and into the way biographies are constructed and managed ...

A conversation with Kathleen Brady about her biography of the saints of Assisi: Francis and Clare

26 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Learn how Kathleen Brady did Plutarch proud and managed, as well, to write a biography for our times.

Another biography for Black History Month.

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Recovered Life of Isaac Anderson, a well composed biography by Alicia K. Jackson, published by University Press of Mississippi.

A conversation with James McGrath Morris, author of Tony Hillerman: A Life

19 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging talk about Hillerman and Morris’s other subjects and how they fit into his conception of biography.

A Biography of the Day for Black History Month

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A biography of the first Black archeologist that tells us a good deal not only about Black history but about the enticements of biography.

An unusual group biography: The Psychologies of Political Exile: From Ovid to the Dalai Lama

12 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A talk with prolific biographer and psychoanalyst, Jay Martin, about exile, displaced peoples, and why it should matter to you.

A conversation with Ralph Eubanks, author of A Place Like Mississippi

05 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We range from speaking about the importance of place in memoir and biography to the real and imaginary landscapes of writers, and much more.

Don’t Be Afraid! We’re talking theory here.

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A discussion with David Veltman and Kerstin Maria Pahl about their contributions to a new book about biography, Fear of Theory.

A lively talk with Steve Paul about Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S Connell

29 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From Kansas City to medieval alchemy and a lot in between, the life of Evan S. Connell and what it took for a biographer to cover the interstices of t...

Biography of the Day, Part 3

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tune in to a special announcement at the beginning of this podcast.

Who is Assia Wevill? Why Does She Matter?

22 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How one life can illuminate the lives of others.

The Biography of the Day, Part 2

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when Frederick Douglass and Andrew Johnson track one another in a Plutarchian biography of parallel lives in the throes of Reconstruction...

Who is Assia Wevill? Why She Matters. Part 1

15 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A conversation with Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Peter K. Steinberg about their edition of The Collected Writings of Assia Wevill

The Biography of The Day, Part 1

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Just browse in the bookstore with me. This won’t take long.

Reposting, due to technical difficult. My interview with Debby Applegate about Madam

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A look at the career of Polly Adler and why it matters.

Reposting this episode in case you had trouble hearing Debby Applegate talk about Polly Adler

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

About the famous madam and much more

Plutarch Redux: Parallel Poems in the Age of Trump by Robert Hamblin

08 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join a conversation in progress about what Plutarch means to us and how to make poetry of Plutarch and biography.

Who’s Afraid of Theory?

01 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

My take on a new book, Fear of Theory, and why biographers are reluctant to theorize. Also, a preview of coming attractions.

Christmas 1942 at the Faulkners

25 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One kind of traditional Christmas

Mystery Podcast #1: Every biography is an autobiography

18 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It is a mystery, so you’re not getting anything from me. Just listen

A Conversation with Cathy Curtis about her new biography of Elizabeth Hardwick

11 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cathy Curtis gets into the nitty gritty of biography, explaining how she does her work, why she chose Elizabeth Hardwick, and why her next subject is ...

A talk with Hilary Holladay about her stirring new biography of Adrienne Rich

05 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A deep dive into the life of one of America’s greatest poets and how a biographer goes about her work. Don’t miss Holladay’s concluding remarks ...

What’s New in Biography for 2021: The Unknowns and the Knowns

04 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two biographies that say a lot of why we turn to biography.

Ray Boomhower talks about his biography of acclaimed war correspondent, Richard Tregaskis

20 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How a biography of a war correspondent gets done with a veteran biographer of war correspondents, Ray Boomhower.

Gay Faulkner and Biography, how the story gets told, and why.

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Faulkner’s performance of gayness, why it was important, how it enters his work, and why a book such as Gay Faulkner destablizes biography is a good...

What’s New in Biography, 2021: Three Well Worn Biographical Subjects

06 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why write another biography of? Three biographers answer the question for Robert E. Lee, Oliver Cromwell, and Winston Churchill

Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and most of all Assia Wevill in a new light in Capriccio

31 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Part of a continuing series on the biographical novel and the way it contributes to our understanding of biographical subjects—this time with Dina D...

The Business of Biography: An Addendum, courtesy of Karen Christensen

23 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide-ranging discussion with Karen Christensen, publisher and biographer, about libel, indemnity clauses, the widow Eliot and others widows and wive...

The Role Of Interpretation: A Discussion with the Inimitable Hans Renders

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging discussion of how biographers treat the issue of interpretation, how much to comment as opposed to just telling the story.

The Answer to One Biography is Another Biography

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I explain why in terms of my own experience researching and writing about the life of Sylvia Plath

The Answer to One Biography is Another Biography

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I explain why in terms of my own experience working on Sylvia Plath

A conversation with Joseph McBride about Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge

09 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide-ranging discussion of Billy Wilder’s career, why McBride decided to do a biographical/critical study of the director, and the different objec...

A Capsule History of The Biographical Novel with Michael Lackey

02 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How the biographical novel got started, what it is now, and where we are headed.

What’s New in Biography, Part 3: Show Business and the Archives

25 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Three new biographies that say so much about the art of biography.

A talk about a great figure in the Civil Rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer.

18 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A talk about a great figure in the Civil Rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer, with a master biographer, Kate Clifford Larson

What’s New in Biography, Part 2

11 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Introductions to five new biographies of miscreants and saints: Louis Lorax, Mary Todd Lincoln, Robert Maxwell, Simone Weil, and Queen Victoria

Part 1: What’s New In Biography

04 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Brief forays into six biographies of Monica Jones and Philip Larkin, D. H. Lawrence, Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Frankenthaler, William Blake, and Napoleo...

Season 2, Episode 1: A Preview of Coming Attractions

28 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More interviews with biographers, biographical novelists, discussions of issues that concern biographers and readers, and my take on several new biogr...

Part 5 of my conversation with Tim Christian and Carol Sklenicka about the business of biography

20 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Part 5 of a long-running series about the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography. This episode concentrates on the business of biography.

Part 4 of a discussion of the principles, practices and mechanics of biography

14 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Part 4 of a discussion of the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography with Tim Christian, biographer of Mary Hemingway, and Carol Sklenicka,...

A conversation with Susan Ronald about her new biography about Joseph Kennedy, The Ambassador

07 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Susan Ronald explains why FDR chose Joseph Kennedy, a man without diplomatic skills, to be ambassador to Great Britain between 1938 and 1940

Talking with Connie Palmen about her biographical novel, written in the voice of Ted Hughes

04 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Talking with Connie Palmen about her biographical novel written in the voice of Ted Hughes: Your Story, My Story. We discuss the principles, practices...

A talk with Jerome Charyn about his novel, Sergeant Salinger, and the aims of biographical fiction.

01 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Think there is a sharp dividing line between biography and biographical fiction? Jerome Charyn disagrees.

Part 3 of our discussion on the principles, practices, and mechanics of biography

31 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A special treat in this episode: Tim Christian reads from his forthcoming biography of Mary Hemingway.

More with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka about the principles, practices & mechanics of biography

24 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka about the principles, practices & mechanics of biography with examples from our work

Episode 66: The Principles & Practices of Biography: A Talk with Tim Christian & Carol Sklenicka

17 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 66: Talking with Tim Christian (biographer of Mary Hemingway) and Carol Sklenicka (biographers of Raymond Carver and Alice Adams) about the pr...

Episode 65: Biography and the Hermeneutic Circle

10 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What it means to circle around your subject in a biography and how that circling is hermeneutical. I draw on my biography of Lillian Hellman for examp...

Episode 64: Janet Malcolm and the Black Art of Biography

03 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

My encounters with Janet Malcolm’s assault on biography, beginning in 1994 and continuing through several books of mine in the new millennium.

A Life in Biography (Trailer)

28 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 63: Talking with Carol Sklenicka about her biography of Alice Adams

27 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The biographer of Raymond Carver explains what drew her to Alice Adams and the history of the generation that came into its own after World War II

Episode 62: A Talk with Kai Bird about his new Shakespearean/Faulknerian biography of Jimmy Carter

19 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A talk with Kai Bird about his Shakespearean/Faulknerian biography of Jimmy Carter

Episode 61: Biography Anne Sebba discussing Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy

12 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide-ranging discussion of why Ethel Rosenberg matters, what is new in her story, and why American writers continue to be obsessed with her life.

Episode 60: The Case for Literary Prurience

05 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I draw on my experience of writing biographies of William Faulkner, Michael Foot, and Amy Lowell, to explain why biographies have to be about the whol...

Episode 59: Biographology

29 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What you need to know about reading, writing, and reviewing biography.

Episode 58: The Roth/Bailey Uproar

22 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

My view of what has happened to Bailey’s biography of Roth, how reviewers and readers have responded, and why what I’ve seen so far is inadequate....

Talking with Gail Crowther about her new book on Plath & Sexton, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz

08 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What goes into a dual biography, and what a sociologist can bring to the study of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.

Episode 56: A talk with Ira Nadel about Philip Roth, Leonard Cohen, and authorized/unauthorized bios

01 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide-ranging interview about how biography gets done, both authorized and unauthorized, with Nadel’s subjects, Leonard Cohen & Philip Roth, and mo...

Episode 55: Tales Told Out of School, Part 2: 40 Years of Interviewing

17 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What happens during and after interviews, with examples drawn from my biographies of Lillian Hellman, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, Jill Craigie, and Mi...

Episode 54, Part 1: Tales Told Out of School: 40 Years of Interviews

10 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What happens during and after interviews with subjects ranging from Walter Matthau to Ellen Burstyn to Richard Wilbur.

Episode 53: Mike Peros, biographer of Dan Duryea and José Ferrer & how Mike became a biographer

03 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Peros describes how he became a biographer, how he researched his biographies of José Ferrer and Dan Duryea, and much more.

Episode 52: A Plethora of Plath, or Why So Many Biographies

27 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Through the examples of Marilyn Monroe, Amy Lowell, William Faulkner, and Sylvia Plath, I explain why so many biographies of the same subject are publ...

Episode 51: Talking with Bob Batchelor about his book, biography—how it gets done and so much more.

20 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A conversation with Bob Batchelor about his work from John Updike to Stan Lee and much more about biography and its place in the world and in our imag...

Episode 50: A talk about biography with John Matteson, author of A Worse Place Than Hell

13 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging discussion of the choices a biographer makes and how John Matteson put together his group of figures present at the battle of Frederick...

Episode 49: A talk with Kathleen Spaltro, Author of The Great Lie: The Creation of Mary Astor

06 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging of discussion of a great character actress, active in both silent and sound film, her relationships with Ronald Colman and Bette Davis,...

Episode 48: A discussion with Sydney Stern about her book, The Brothers Mankiewicz

27 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What it takes to write a biography of the Mankiewicz brothers and other issues biographers encounter.

Episode 47: Justice to Charmian London, a writer who was much more than Jack London’s wife

20 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging discussion of Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s new biography, including reflections on the biographer as villain and how biography can be an act ...

Episode 46: How I Became A Biographer: A conversation with Richard Bradford

13 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I speak with Richard Bradford about how he became a biographer, the role biography should play in literary study, and why he chose to write about Erne...

Episode 45: William Faulkner’s Civil War, a talk with Michael Gorra about his new book

06 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

All things biographical and how Faulkner, the man and the writer, approached the Civil War.

Episode 44: The Past Is Never Dead

31 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How does a biographer recreate the past the milieu of a subject’s life. I draw on my own experience in biographies of William Faulkner, Lillian Hell...

Episode 43: Talking with William Souder about Mad at the World, his new biography of John Steinbeck

23 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

William Souder explains his attraction to Steinbeck, what it takes to do a biography, the audience you can expect to reach as a biographer, and much m...

Episode 42: Talking Faulkner biography with Larry Wells, author of the memoir, In Faulkner’s Shadow

17 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging discussion of Larry Wells’s memories of the Faulkner family, of Faulkner biographers, Joseph Blotner and Carvel Collins, and what it ...

Episode 41: Heather Clark on her new Plath Biography.

09 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We talk about how Heather Clark became interested in Plath, how she came to write the biography, how biography is a product of its age, and much more....

Episode 40: John Bryant on his new multi-volume Melville biography

02 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A wide-ranging discussion of biography, how to work on literary figures Melville’s “black consciousness” and much more.

Part 3 of my interview with Alexis Coe

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Slavery, capitalism, what went into the making of Washington’s life and those of his contemporaries—plus Alexis Coe puts THE BIG QUESTION to me.

Part 2 of my interview with Alexis Coe

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More discussion of how to shake up the genre of presidential biography.

Part 1: Alexis Coe author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging discussion of presidential biography and why Alexis Coe decided on what has been called a “historiographical intervention.”

Episode 38: Ten Tips For Enterprising Biographers

26 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

My experience over 40 years of contacting sources and how they responded, and how I got them to respond.

Episode 37: Why Plath: My Rollicking Interview with Emily Van Dyne about her forthcoming book

19 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Much talk about Emily’s book, Loving Sylvia Plath, how students and other readers react to Plath, and the role biography plays in the mixed reaction...

How it took 30 years to write 2 pages of The Life of William Faulkner

12 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Discussing my experience and Faulkner’s in Hollywood and how all that gets on the page.

How it took 30 years to write 2 page of The Life of William Faulkner.

12 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Describing my experience and Faulkner’s in Hollywood and how it all gets onto the page.

Episode 35

04 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Talking with Peter K. Steinberg, co-editor of The Letters of Sylvia Plath.

Episode 34: Speaking with Celia Stahr about her splendid biography Frida in America

28 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A conversation about Frida Kahlo and her three years in America with a great cast of characters, including Henry Ford, the Rockefeller’s, Georgia O’...

Episode 33: How I Became an Outlaw, Part 2: The Case of Michael Foot

21 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dealing with family and friends.

Episode 32: My conversation with Jonathan Alter about his new biography of Jimmy Carter.

14 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We discuss the first full-length biography of Jimmy Carter, his achievements and failures, his rise from the bottom third to the top third of U.S. pre...

How I became an outlaw biographer

07 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Working on Lillian Hellman, Martha Gellhorn, Norman Mailer, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, Jill Craigie, Michael Foot, Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, Amy ...

Episode 30: The Biographical Novel: Who Cares?

31 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I discuss novels about Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, Martha Gellhorn, H. G. Wells and mull over a universe in which biography and biographical novels c...

Episode 29: The Biography Police

24 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An account of the campaigns orchestrated against biographers, using as examples biographies of T. E. Lawrence and Susan Sontag.

Reading and Writing Biography: A Primer

17 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The sorry state of reviewing biography as reviewers turns in what amounts to book reports, letting down the genre of biography and those who practice ...

What a biographer knows.

10 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I read and discuss a section from The Life of William Faulkner, pointing out my use of evidence, and concluding that I am my own best evidence.

What is a definitive biography?

03 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I consider the question in the light of biographies of Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner, Olson Welles, John F. Kennedy, and others.

The Cruelty of Biography

26 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A wide ranging discussion of the anathemas against biography perpetuated by modern writers, including Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Somerset Maugham, J...

Episode 24: Psychologizing Biography

19 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What does Psychologizing biography mean? How I have used it.

Reviewing Biography: The Case of Sylvia Plath

12 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I read a review of my book, The Last Days of Sylvia Plath, in order to discuss the methodology of biography and of the reviewer.

Episode 22: The Case Against Biography

05 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What to say about the epistemology of biography and why it is sometimes better to not have been there, but to see it all from afar and yet in closeup,...