Best literary biographies
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Biographies About
Acclaimed Authors
More fascinating than fiction, the true stories of award-winning
and best-selling novelists are sure to keep you riveted.
Remembering Roth
- By: James Atlas
- Narrated by: James Atlas
- Length: 1 hr and 21 mins
- Unabridged
Overall
Performance
Story
To most audiences, Philip Roth is a literary icon, author of probing, provocative works like American Pastoral, Portnoy’s Complaint, and Goodbye, Columbus. But to James Atlas, Philip Roth was more than just a writer—he was a friend....
- 5 out of 5 stars
made me think as much as many long books.
- By K D on 03-10-19
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Literary Biographies
Following are literary biographies reviewed by The New York Times Book Review since Dec. 31, 2000.
Alice Walker: A LifeBy EVELYN C. WHITE
Evelyn C. White traces the writer's life from her days as the child of Georgia sharecroppers to the international triumph of "The Color Purple."
Allen Tate: Orphan of the South
By THOMAS A. UNDERWOOD
A biography of the critic Allen Tate focuses on his Southern aesthetics.
Anthony Blunt: His Lives
By MIRANDA CARTER
Miranda Carter has written a biography of the enigmatic art historian who was surveyor of Britain's royal pictures and a secret Soviet spy.
Anthony Powell: A Life
By MICHAEL BARBER
The first full-length life of Powell is chatty and jokey in a manner peculiar to British biographers.
The Art of Burning Bridges: A Life of John O'Hara
By GEOFFREY WOLFF
Geoffrey Wolff looks past John O'Hara's reputation as an ogre to get to the writer who shook up 20th-century fiction.
Arthur Miller: His Life and Work
By MARTIN GOTTFRIED
Martin Gottfried’s biography tra
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50 Must-Read Literary Biographies
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism by Megan Marshall
The supposed “American Brontës,” the three Peabody sisters influenced the thinking of writers like Thoreau and Hawthorne. The youngest sister, Sophia, married Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
After you finish the story of the Peabody sisters and are searching for more stories about American Romanticism and the role women played in the literary scene at the time, pick up Megan Marshall’s other book, about Margaret Fuller.
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The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm
This is a biography of the biographies that have been written about Sylvia Plath. It tries to correct the myth surrounding Plath and Ted Hughes.
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary
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