Episode 58: The Roth/Bailey Uproar
My view of what has happened to Bailey’s biography of Roth, how reviewers and readers have responded, and why what I’ve seen so far is inadequate.
22 Maj 20214h 47min
Talking with Gail Crowther about her new book on Plath & Sexton, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz
What goes into a dual biography, and what a sociologist can bring to the study of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.
8 Maj 202131min
Episode 56: A talk with Ira Nadel about Philip Roth, Leonard Cohen, and authorized/unauthorized bios
A wide-ranging interview about how biography gets done, both authorized and unauthorized, with Nadel’s subjects, Leonard Cohen & Philip Roth, and more.
1 Maj 202142min
Episode 55: Tales Told Out of School, Part 2: 40 Years of Interviewing
What happens during and after interviews, with examples drawn from my biographies of Lillian Hellman, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, Jill Craigie, and Michael Foot.
17 Apr 202135min
Episode 54, Part 1: Tales Told Out of School: 40 Years of Interviews
What happens during and after interviews with subjects ranging from Walter Matthau to Ellen Burstyn to Richard Wilbur.
10 Apr 202139min
Episode 53: Mike Peros, biographer of Dan Duryea and José Ferrer & how Mike became a biographer
Mike Peros describes how he became a biographer, how he researched his biographies of José Ferrer and Dan Duryea, and much more.
3 Apr 202139min
Episode 52: A Plethora of Plath, or Why So Many Biographies
Through the examples of Marilyn Monroe, Amy Lowell, William Faulkner, and Sylvia Plath, I explain why so many biographies of the same subject are published.
27 Mars 202146min
Episode 51: Talking with Bob Batchelor about his book, biography—how it gets done and so much more.
A conversation with Bob Batchelor about his work from John Updike to Stan Lee and much more about biography and its place in the world and in our imaginations.
20 Mars 202148min
