Biography as High Adventure: Life-Writers Speak on Their Art

Book Overview

Biography as High Adventure: Life-Writers Speak on Their Art is a collection of essays that explores the art and craft of biographical writing. Edited by acclaimed historian and biographer Stephen B. Oates this volume features contributions from prominent life-writers and historians who discuss their experiences, methods, and philosophies regarding the biographical form.

Through essays and reflections from accomplished biographers and historians, this collection examines biography as both an art form and a scholarly discipline, exploring what draws writers to biographical subjects and how they navigate the intersection of historical accuracy and narrative storytelling. What culminates is a diverse perspective on how face down the challenges of historical research and achieve the creative and intellectual dimensions of writing lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870235141
• ISBN13: 9780870235146
• Release Date: May 1986
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A fine collection of essays

These ten previously published essays may pique the interest of prospective "life-writers," although a majority of these pieces tend toward the theoretical rather than the practical--a circumstance no doubt arising from the fact that six treat the lives of literary figures. Although the writing is at least solid and is sometimes lively, my own preference in a collection of essays about biographical writing is the more engaging (and nearly contemporary) collection, William Zinsser, ed., Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography (New York: American Heritage, 1986).