Biographies and Autobiographies About Authors, S/D

S: "Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius" by Lawrence Jackson. I don't read too many writer bios, but this one i liked - a fine balance of history + criticism.

"Orwell" by Bernard Crick. I know that D. J. Taylor's biography is the flavor of the moment as Orwell biographies go, but I still think that Crick's is the best, particularly for explaining Orwell's politics.

"Graham Greene" by Norman Sherry. The first volume is so enormous it almost chokes the reader with its bulk, but the second volume is much more manageable (not to mention more interesting as it gets into the more important and controversial portions of Greene's career). It will be interesting to see how Sherry finishes it up in the final volume.

Nearly 15K on how Biographies aren't good rly

Layers of hate-reading to be had.

tl;dr

been a long time, but I enjoyed that Crick bio of Orwell mentioned upthread: def a study, with speculation and evidence clearly presented---also mentions stuff I didn't know, such as Down and Out... being fiction, although I don't remember how much of it might have been based on personal experience, but to some extent influenced by Jack London's People of the Abyss(which is non-fiction, or at least there was an edition with his pix, via concealed camera, I think---sold a copy of it in a used book store, to a woman whose son was always competing w friends re rare book finds). Also London's The Iron Heel was a forerunner of 1984, though the Orwell treatment was distinctly his.
Some of his old schoolmates got a bit impatient later, something like, "You couldn't ask him for a light without getting a lecture on production of matches and the plight of workers in match factories." One old boy deplored the description of their alma mater in "Such, Such Were The Joys", but then took it further (interviewed by Crick, I think), volunteering that it was not terribly uncommon to see a lad vomiting into his breakfast bowl.

xp enjoyed that Alice Spawls piece - seems like a very difficult excercise, writing a Brontë bio disguised as something about Brontë bios and bios in general _without_ ending up like all the other Brontë bios responding to other Brontë bios. Some beautiful passages too! Good work!

im reading and loving vol 1 Oneill: Son and Playwright by louis sheaffer

on to the ruth franklin shirley jackson bio, v good also

the oneill bio i mentioned last post (vol 1&2) is prob amongst the top 10 books across any genre that ive ever read fwiw

two of my favorites are Nabokov's Speak, Memory and Primo Levi's The Periodic Table. i like memoirs that don't try to connect the dots.