Biographers International Organization

The 2013 Compleat Biographer conference, scheduled for May 17 through May 19 in New York City, will include 20 panels, three or four on-site research workshops, and four master classes, according to program committee chair Brian Jay Jones. “The program committee has put together an outstanding lineup of subjects for the conference,” said BIO vice president Jones. “There will be not-to-missed panels for all biographers, seasoned professionals as well as those just starting.” The preliminary… Read More »

Readers rarely come across articles on the craft or ethics of biography in the mainstream media. There are some exceptions, of course: the publication earlier this year of the fourth volume of Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson biography drew major coverage in such periodicals as Esquire and Newsweek, and Caro was interviewed on CBS’s Sunday Morning. Last month, we saw another exception to this rule. When subject and writer have an affair and that affair leads… Read More »

The program committee of Biographers International Organization, acting on the recommendation of the site committee, just announced that the fourth annual Compleat Biographer Conference will be held from May 17 through May 19, 2013, in New York City. The committee is still hashing out details for the conference site and the panels to be offered, as well as pre- and post-conference events; Hurricane Sandy delayed finalizing the conference site selection. BIO president James McGrath Morris… Read More »

by New York Correspondent Dona Munker Robert K. Massie, a journalist and historian whose gift for vivid narrative has made him the preeminent American biographer of Russian royals, makes his job sound easy. “I am a storyteller,” he explains modestly, adding that he writes biography because “telling stories about peoplpe in the past is important to everyone trying to understand who we are and where we come from.” Massie’s remarks came as part of the… Read More »