I ‘WHAT is biography for? What useful purpose does it serve? Why should one write it? What is its actual importance in the field of literature? Above all, what is autobiography for, and what ...

THE art of biography, we say — but at once go on to ask, Is biography an art? The question is foolish perhaps, and ungenerous certainly, considering the keen pleasure that biographers have given ...

Jill Lepore's new nonfiction book, Joe Gould's Teeth, challenges us to look closely at biography and writing ...