Biographers International Organization

When BIO’s board of directors meets in New York City on Sunday May 19, following the Compleat Biographer conference, it will include lots of new members as a result of the 2013 elections that concluded on May 1. Elected for a two-year term on the board are: Marc Leepson, Carol Berkin, William Souder, Cathy Curtis, Lois Banner, Joshua Kendall, and Amanda Foreman. Kitty Kelley, an incumbent was reelected to another two-year term. Nearly 50 percent… Read More »

Announcing the First-Ever Prize for Best Biography of the Year as Selected by Biographers; List of Nominees Revealed New York, NY—For the first time ever, biographers will determine the best biography of the year when they bestow the Plutarch Award at a gala ceremony in New York City on May 18. Named after the famous Ancient Greek biographer, the prize aims to be the genre’s equivalent of the Oscar, in that the winner will be… Read More »

A discussion of gender and whether biographers can write about subjects of a different gender were part of a lively discussion between members of BIO on new monthly radio program devoted to biography. The program, called “Collected Words,” is produced by Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It premièred on April 3 on KVSF. BIO president James McGrath Morris served as host to inaugural guests Carl Rollyson, who just published a biography of… Read More »

By Dona Munker, TBC New York correspondent The overall market for biographies remains steady, according to three trade publishing veterans who spoke at a recent meeting of the New York University Biography Seminar, organized by BIO member Gayle Feldman. The February 20 panel comprised Jonathan Galassi, a former editor and current president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Eric Simonoff, head of the literary division of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment; and biographer James Atlas, who was… Read More »

While the fall remains the favorite season for publishers to bring out their heavy hitters, there is no lack of substantial and important biographies on the spring list of 2013. Here are some titles, among many, likely to garner considerable attention. Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage by Jeffrey Frank will be published by Simon & Schuster this month and was touted in a recent issue of the New Yorker. In… Read More »

The 10th anniversary season of the Chappell Great Lives Lecture Series began last month, with Philip Freeman speaking about Julius Caesar. The lectures, which are free and typically draw several hundred people, are sponsored by the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In the months to come, the lectures will look at the lives of such diverse figures as Brigham Young, Rasputin, Marian Anderson, Michelangelo, and Walter Cronkite. Lecturers will include BIO member Carl… Read More »

Here is the complete interview with researcher and writer Michael Hill from the February issue of The Biographer’s Craft. TBC: You’ve just been hired for a new biographical project, or are beginning one of your own.  Briefly, what are your first steps in beginning research? Hill: First, find out what manuscript collections are in existence and are they currently open to researchers. Where are they located and how extensive are they—i.e., do… Read More »

  JANUARY Johnson and Boswell: A Biography of Friendship by John B. Radner (Yale University Press) The Watchful Clothier: The Life of an Eighteenth-Century Protestant Capitalist by Matthew Kadane (Yale University Press) Ravel by Roger Nichols (Yale University Press) George II: King and Elector by Andrew C. Thompson (Yale University Press) Hawthorne’s Habitations: A Literary Life by Robert Milder (Oxford University Press) The Pinecone: The Story of Sarah Losh, Forgotten Romantic Heroine—Antiquarian, Architect, and Visionary… Read More »