A good biography is a well-staged illusion. It creates--on paper--a vivid, rounded, and immediate sense of lived life. In contrast to purely fictional forms, biography writing does not allow total freedom to the biographer in the creative act. Ideally, a biography's backbone is formed by accurate historical facts. But its soul lies elsewhere. Since the concern is life, something more is needed: Nothing dry, cold or dead, but a vibrant impression of life that is left in the air after one turns over the last page. But how does a biographer do it? The way a biographer creates a subject is...
A good biography is a well-staged illusion. It creates--on paper--a vivid, rounded, and immediate sense of lived life. In contrast to purely fictional...
