The following BIO members have new books out this month:
• Rachel L. Swarns, The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church (Random House)
• Patrick Dean, Nature’s Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World (Pegasus Books)

The following BIO members have new book deals:
• Ashley Farmer, Queen Mother Audley Moore, sold to Pantheon by Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavor
• Joanne Mulcahy, Marion Greenwood: Portrait and Self-Portrait, sold to the University of Alabama Press
• Judith L. Pearson, Radical Sisters (Shirley Temple Black, Rose Kushner, and Evelyn Lauder), sold to Mayo Clinic Press by Dani Segelbaum at the Carol Mann Agency
• Kathleen Spaltro, Lionel Barrymore: Character and Endurance in Hollywood’s Golden Age, sold to the University Press of Kentucky
• Sydney Ladensohn Stern, Irene: A Life (Irene Mayer Selznik), sold to University of California Press by Sam Stoloff at the Frances Goldin Literary Agency; and Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique, sold to Open Road Media, also sold by Sam Stoloff at the Frances Goldin Literary Agency

The June episodes of the BIO Podcast are as follows:
• June 2, Aidan Levy, author of Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins (Hachette, 2022), interviewed by Jennifer Skoog.
• June 9, Candice Millard, author of River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile (Doubleday, 2022), interviewed by John “Jack” A. Farrell (Part 1).
• June 16, Candice Millard, author of River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile (Doubleday, 2022), interviewed by John “Jack” A. Farrell (Part 2).
• June 23, Jeff Pearlman, author of The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson (Mariner Books, October 2022), interviewed by Lisa Napoli.
• June 30, Rachel Swarns, author of The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the Catholic Church (Random House, 2023), interviewed by Sonja Williams.

Additionally:

Lois Banner wishes to share this update with the BIO membership: “My fifth biography and my 12th published book, a very new interpretation of the great film star Greta Garbo, will be published in September by Rutgers University Press. If I haven’t appeared at BIO meetings, it was because I worked 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for 10 years to research and write it. I taught in Sweden at Uppsala University as a Fulbright Distinguished Fellow, and was awarded a Berlin Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin. I learned to read Swedish when I was in my 70s, giving the lie to the assumption that language abilities decline precipitously as we age. I discovered her autobiographical writings—all of which were published in Sweden—and I gained access to the oral interviews of her friends and associates done by previous biographers. I significantly undermined the assumption of all previous biographers that she was a hypochondriac by finding medical records. It has been an extraordinary voyage, and I look forward to sharing it with others.”

Ellen Brown was a source for Helen Shaw’s piece in The New Yorker titled “Did This Writer Actually Know Tennessee Williams?” For the BIO Insider, Brown commented on the piece: “It’s an important story, and I’m glad to be a part of it. While the book at issue is really more of a memoir than a biography, the same principles are at stake. I hope the story will spark some interesting conversation for nonfiction writers.”

Greg Daugherty wrote the “watchalong guide” to accompany the History Channel’s new three-part documentary series on FDR, in which he compresses the lives of 29 of the president’s family members and associates (and little dog, Fala) into 35 to 45 words each. The series is based on the book Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Jonathan Eig discovered major new evidence regarding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s opinions of Malcolm X. They were detailed by The Washington Post.

David Levering Lewis appeared in a virtual conversation with Chad Williams, author of The Wounded World: W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 2023), for the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center. A recording of the event is available here.

Carl Rollyson published “Kitty Kelley, Sinatra, and the Problems of ‘Authorized’ Biography” in The New York Sun.

Laura Snyder wrote the cover story of the summer issue of The American Scholar, titled “A Kingdom of Little Animals,” which explores how Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of microorganisms made possible the revolutionary advances in biology and medicine that continue to inform our COVID age. It can be viewed here.

Eric K. Washington received the 2022 Preservation Advocacy Award from the Victorian Society of New York. He recently marked a major victory in his preservation work when the building he has long advocated for—128 West 17th Street, the former Colored School No. 4 in Chelsea, Manhattan (the last surviving building used as a segregated elementary school during Jim Crow)—received landmark protection from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Washington also briefed New York City mayor Eric Adams about the history and potential of the newly designated landmark. Adams pledged $6 million in funding for the building’s preservation. Learn more here.