BIO Calls on Pulitzer Board to Create Separate Category for Biography

August 8th, 2017

Responding to the recent trend of awarding the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography to authors of memoirs, Biography International Organization has written to Pulitzer Prize administrator, Mike Pride, asking that the board overseeing the Pulitzer Prizes to create a separate category for biography and a new category for autobiography and memoir. Pride recently left his position but turned over the letter to Dana Canedy, his replacement as administrator.

In a letter signed by BIO Board president Will Swift and Advisory Committee chair Debby Applegate, BIO specifically asked the Pulitzer Prize Board to do the following: 
(1) review the recent history of the prize for “Biography or Autobiography”;
(2) consider biographies on their own merits and thus as their own unique prize category;
(3) consolidate autobiography and memoir into a new and distinct category.

TBC first addressed this issue in June, when James McGrath Morris interviewed David Nasaw on the topic. Nasaw, chair of the Pulitzer Prize Biography/Autobiography Committee in 2015, and a two-time finalist for the Biography Pulitzer prize, said, “It was our understanding that a memoir is a piece of a life, a moment of a life, a part of a life, and it is not documented. There is no corroborating material, there are no additional interviews, there are no newspaper articles, and there is no context provided. A memoir is a work—as the title makes clear—of memory. Autobiography and biographies are not works of memory.”

Commenting on BIO’s effort, Swift said, “I am grateful to Cathy Curtis, Steve Weinberg, Jamie Morris, Brian Jones and most of all Debby Applegate for helping me think through the complex issues we present to new Pulitzer administrator Dana Canedy. I look forward to hearing from her and we would be delighted to meet with her and other representatives of the Pulitzer board.”

The entire letter is reprinted here.

Current and Upcoming Biographies on Film Tackle a Wide Range of Subjects

July 9th, 2017

Whether doing their own research, using the perspective of those close to their subjects, relying on existing print biographies, or combining elements of all three, biographical filmmakers can take a variety of tacks as they craft cinematic portraits of a person’s life. Their biggest decision, of course, is whether to go the documentary route or create a biopic, with the potential interest in the subject—and available funding—influencing the choice. While the Hollywood treatment of a subject’s life can mean huge box office sales and perhaps a trip down the red carpet at the Academy Awards—think last year’s Hidden Figures—the increasing number of streaming video outlets and their demand for content has opened up new outlets for biographical films.

TBC’s annual—but far from exhaustive—look at biography on film shows that both cable networks and the streaming giants have recently or will offer soon a number of documentaries. In addition, documentaries will appear on the big screen, along with the more high-profile biopics. Here are some of the biographical offerings of the past few months, ones slated for release soon, and films that are still being shot or are in the planning stages. Go here to learn more about these films.

For The Love of Documentary: The Making of The Black Eagle of Harlem

July 6th, 2017

By Billy Tooma
The Black Eagle of Harlem is a study in biography and forgotten history. Col. Hubert Fauntleroy Julian—aviator, soldier of fortune, and arms dealer—led a life of high adventure, finding himself at the center and periphery of major world events. Julian drew headlines wherever he went, generated a fair share of controversy, but most importantly he fought against racial attitudes and shattered countless stereotypes. He flew before Charles Lindbergh, traveled to Ethiopia before most Americans had seen their own Grand Canyon, and pushed for the advancement of his race even while many of his own people vilified him with accusations of being a flamboyant charlatan. Julian’s Zelig-like ability to adapt and take on multiple personas helped him persevere in the face of adversity. The challenge of telling the most honest version of Julian’s story is what drove this project. The documentary spawned from this study utilizes a combination of interviews, archival materials, voiceovers, and original artwork to recreate the amazing—sometimes unbelievable—life of the Black Eagle, one of the twentieth century’s most intriguing icons. . . .

Primary sources were vital if I was going to craft the documentary’s screenplay. A cold search, in early January 2015, produced Newspapers.com. A free preview showed that there were potentially hundreds of articles featuring Hubert Julian. I was able to access The New York Age and The Brooklyn Daily Eagle for a small fee. This information was readily available to anyone who wished to seek it out. None of this was new material, lost to history, and now suddenly being rediscovered in someone’s basement. David McCullough points out that “though I’ve never written a book where I didn’t find something new . . . it’s more likely you see something that’s been around a long time that others haven’t seen.” It was plain to see that there was just too much information out there for any one person to sift through, but it was up to me to make sense of what I was finding. The New York Times was next, but resulted in less than the ones that preceded it. Then I discovered The Chicago Defender’s and The Pittsburgh Courier’s archives. . . . [By] June 2015, the core of my research was accomplished. Hubert Julian’s life, between 1922 and 1983, was accounted for on a near month-to-month basis. The trick now was how to put it all together.

There had to be a narrator controlling the story. There had to be direct quotations from the Black Eagle himself. And, there had to be direct quotations from the newspaper articles. All of this was quite clear. An interesting story, seeped in facts, was needed. I had to take the [existing] biographies, cross reference them with the newspaper articles, and determine the most honest version of Julian’s life. That took weeks to accomplish and when I started to write the actual screenplay, after eight months of research and outlining, the process was still ongoing as I had to ensure I was maintaining objectivity. But to delay the writing any longer would have hurt me more than helped. McCullough calls research seductive, that the love of it can create the “tendency. . . to wander off on tangents,” and Brian Jay Jones says something similar, pointing out that he knows he is ready to write once “I can sit down and make even just a chronological outline of my subject’s life.” I had the bulk of research completed. I had Julian’s life written out in front of me. It was time to write. . . .

I had to be mindful of the story I wanted to tell. Always wanting to start at the end of Julian’s adventures, I wrote a prologue, placing him in a United Nations prison in the early 1960s. . . . I extended the drama to allow an audience to really understand that they are about to watch the life story of a man who talked his way out of every jam he ever got into, but not at that moment up on the screen. It is this desire of mine to make sure that viewers are aware that no one, not even the focal point of the documentary, is safe. I am not trying to create dread. I am trying to create a moment of suspense. . . .

I planned out, well in advance, the type of visual mixture necessary to tell the story. To bring in a commissioned artist to render images for me only served to benefit the storytelling process. It was a much better alternative than finding miscellaneous photographs that would not make any sense up on the screen. . . . Viewers need to see Hubert Julian, the titular Black Eagle, parachute down into Harlem, New York, wearing a crimson jumpsuit while playing a saxophone. There is not a single photograph that captures the moment. So my style, grown from a sequence of perceiving what works and what does not work, characterizes how I believe the story should be represented and presented to an audience.

The archival materials: photographs, newspaper clippings, and newsreel footage were easy enough to acquire once I knew where to look. . . . The only newsreel footage that actually features Julian speaking, that I could find in a useable state, comes from the British Pathé archive. It is a wonderful 30-second clip with Julian, complete with his fake English accent, speaking on the plight of the Ethiopian people. While I was able to obtain a relatively modest collection of archival materials, my initial gut feeling of needing an artist was definitely validated. I could not have made this documentary without [them].

Because I have always been fascinated by the way [Ken] Burns makes a documentary, I knew I wanted to include voices other than that of the narrator’s and interviewees. . . . I found several individuals who I thought had interesting-sounding voices and who could help me tell Julian’s story. . . . Quite by accident, via another Google search, I found Mark Julian, the Black Eagle’s son through his third marriage. Mark and I communicated for the first time right before Christmas 2014, and we have been on this journey together ever since. The words and phrases he used during his interview touched my heart, and I know that audiences will immediately connect with him. . . .

The editing of the documentary began in June. I set up different phases in order to be successful in this endeavor and not go insane in the process. The first thing to do was piece together the third-person narration, followed by the first-person voiceovers. . . . The visuals were next. If anyone ever tries to tell you it is easy to lay visuals into a film’s editing timeline please let them know they are full of it. This is, by far, the hardest part. But, truth be told, it can be the most fun as well because it is at this phase when all of your hard work during the filmmaking process starts to really feel like it is paying off. It is hard in that you begin marrying yourself to specific visuals for specific moments. Then you need to figure out just how long you want to stay on a particular image before moving on to the next. Once this is all accomplished you have to bring movement into the mix. I believe in utilizing the pan and scan function, manipulating the imagery to move up and down, zoom in and out, whatever is necessary, in order to create a dynamic look to the film. This, together with the voice work, generates a flow that can quicken or slow the pace of a film depending upon how the filmmaker wishes it. I chose to have constantly moving imagery, at varying speeds, because I see my documentary as a living, breathing entity that needs room to spread out and expand its reach towards an audience. . . .

There is a sense of relief when the filmmaking process comes to its conclusion. Feelings of euphoria mixed with dread are present, as well. I do not know what people will think of this documentary. Those who I have screened it for tell me they think it is wonderful, but I often question their critiques, mostly out of anxiety. But the moment when the end credits flash and the words “A Film by Billy Tooma” can been seen is when I can take in a long breath and feel vindicated. It is my film.

To see the complete preface to Tooma’s dissertation, from which this is excerpted, go here.

Billy Tooma holds a BA and MA in English from the William Paterson University of New Jersey. In 2017, he successfully defended his dissertation, earning a Doctor of Letters in Literary Studies from Drew University. Tooma is currently the Deputy Executive Director of the Community College Humanities Association and a trustee on the board of the New Jersey College English Association. He is an English instructor at Essex County College.

Current and Upcoming Biographies on Film Tackle a Wide Range Of Subjects

July 6th, 2017

Whether doing their own research, using the perspective of those close to their subjects, relying on existing print biographies, or combining elements of all three, biographical filmmakers can take a variety of tacks as they craft cinematic portraits of a person’s life. Their biggest decision, of course, is whether to go the documentary route or create a biopic, with the potential interest in the subject—and available funding—influencing the choice. While the Hollywood treatment of a subject’s life can mean huge box office sales and perhaps a trip down the red carpet at the Academy Awards—think last year’s Hidden Figures—the increasing number of streaming video outlets and their demand for content has opened up new outlets for biographical films.

TBC’s annual—but far from exhaustive—look at biography on film shows that both cable networks and the streaming giants have recently or will offer soon a number of documentaries. In addition, documentaries will appear on the big screen, along with the more high-profile biopics. Here are some of the biographical offerings of the past few months, ones slated for release soon, and films that are still being shot or are in the planning stages.

Recently Released
This spring, James Bond fans got a glimpse into the life of the superspy’s least-famous portrayer, George Lazenby, in Hulu’s Becoming Bond. Lazenby was an auto mechanic and male model who had never acted before becoming Sean Connery’s successor as Agent 007. Variety called the subject featured in the film as “more Austin Powers than James Bond.” Released around the same time was a more serious look at Hollywood subjects. Netflix’s Five Came Back examines the wartime service of five famous directors: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. The three-hour documentary series was written by Mark Harris, who wrote a 2016 book of the same name on the directors and their wartime films.

Cable network Spike TV had two notable biographical releases early in 2017. The six-part mini-series TIME: The Kalief Browder Story, looked at the brief life and death of Browder, who spent several years in solitary confinement at Rikers Island for a minor crime he maintained he did not commit. Browder’s story first received wide attention in a 2014 New Yorker article by Jennifer Gonnerman. In May, Spike TV released a different kind of documentary: I Am Heath Ledger relied heavily on “home movie” footage the late actor shot himself during his career. Also in May, PBS offered lighter fare than the two Spike projects, as American Masters took a look at four distinguished chefs in a series called Chefs Flight. New documentaries on James Beard and Jacques Pepin were paired with repeat presentations of films about Julia Child and Alice Waters.

Lifetime Network’s latest biographical entry was a biopic treatment of the last years of Michael Jackson. Titled Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland, it was based on the book Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days, written by two of his former bodyguards. Navi, a well-known Jackson impersonator, portrayed the King of Pop in the biopic. Lifetime is just one of the networks under the A&E umbrella, which presents the Biography website and broadcasts the long-running series of the same name. The documentary series Biography recently returned after a hiatus, with Jackson as the subject of an episode that ran about the same time as Searching for Neverland.

Moving to the big screen, a biopic of hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur came out in June. Titled All Eyez on Me, it features actor Demetrius Shipp Jr. as the late Shakur. In the documentary category, two recent notable biographical films are Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary and Good Fortune. The latter looks at the life of John Paul DeJoria, who made a fortune as co-founder of the Paul Mitchell brand of hair products and later became an environmental activist. Documentary fans had several biographical films to choose from at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival. The subjects featured included Winnie Mandela, Latina activist Dolores Huerta, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Reviews from the Globe and Mail of many of the films screened at the festival are available here.

A film featuring a slice of author Stefan Zweig’s life is currently playing across North America. Titled Farewell to Europe, it looks at Zweig’s time in exile before and during World War II. The film, completed in 2016, was Austria’s entry for the Oscars’ Best Foreign Film category. Finally, while not a biographical film, biographers might find the film Obit of interest. This April 2017 release looks at the obituary-writing team at the New York Times, as they try to piece together the details of the recently deceased’s lives. (Thanks to Cathy Curtis for passing along information on the film.)

Coming Soon
Along with the biopic version of Tupac Shakur’s life, Biography will present a six-part documentary on the hip-hop artist this fall. Focusing on his murder, the documentary is called Who Killed Tupac? Shakur’s musical rival, the Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls, aka Christopher Wallace), will be featured in another Biography offering, Biggie: The Life of Notorious B.I.G.

A slightly older slice of American cultural history will come to the big screen in September. Battle of the Sexes looks at the famous tennis match between Bobby Riggs (played by Steve Carell) and Billie Jean King (played by Emma Stone). Also in September, Tom Cruise will star in American Made as Barry Seal, the former commercial pilot who turned to drug running and then became an informant for the DEA. Due out this fall, but with no release date set, is The Silent Man, with Liam Neeson playing Mark Felt, Watergate’s Deep Throat. Also coming this fall, is Rebel in the Rye, with Nicholas Hoult playing J. D. Salinger, covering his pre-Catcher in the Rye years until the early 1960s. Another literary biopic coming this year, though with less-famous subjects, is The Professor and the Madman. Based on the book of the same title by Simon Winchester, it features Mel Gibson and Sean Penn as the two men behind the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Finally, for the 2017 big-screen holiday season, look for The Greatest Showman, a musical with Hugh Jackman playing P. T. Barnum. It has songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won an Oscar for their songs in last year’s La La Land.

Turning to feature documentaries, a film about Prince called Prince: R U Listening? is due out before the end of the year. Directed by Michael Kirk, an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has often appeared on PBS’s Frontline, the movie will feature interviews with other prominent musicians including Mick Jagger and Bono. A second film about the music star, Prince: Pop Life, is also in the works. Fashion designer Alexander McQueen will be the subject of two upcoming movies: a documentary slated for release this year and a biopic due out next year. Jack O’Connell will play the title role in the biopic, which is based on Andrew Wilson’s 2015 biography, Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath The Skin.

Announced Or In Development
Keeping in mind that movie deals are often delayed or fall through completely, here are some of the biographical films recently announced or just getting off the ground. Filming is underway for a biopic about Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, with Al Pacino in the lead role. The movie, for HBO, was first announced in 2012 but production stopped in 2014. Joe Posnanski’s biography, Paterno, served as a source for the original script. A long-discussed biopic of Queen singer Freddie Mercury seems to be coming together, with Rami Malek, star of TV’s Mr. Robot, slated to play Mercury. Jared Leto will play Andy Warhol in an upcoming film. Work is already underway on White Crow, a movie about Rudolph Nureyev, with Ralph Fiennes as director and starring in the film as the dancer’s teacher.

In addition, The Catcher Was a Spy, based on Nicholas Dawidoff’s 1994 biography of the same name, was shot this year in the Czech Republic. In this film, Paul Rudd stars as Moe Berg, the Major League catcher who worked for the OSS during World War II. Famed socialite, novelist, and wife of F. Scott, Zelda Fitzgerald, is the subject of two upcoming biopics, with Scarlet Johansson and Jennifer Lawrence each taking a turn at playing her. An October 2018 release date has been set for First Man, a film about Neil Armstrong based on the biography of the same name by James R. Hansen. The movie once again teams up Ryan Gosling (in the title role) with director Damien Chazelle; the two worked together on La La Land.

Films with release dates that are farther in the future include an adaptation of Shane White’s biography, Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire. Don Cheadle, who has acquired the rights to the book, previously starred in and directed a biopic of Miles Davis. Another biography will serve as source material for an upcoming move: Sonia Purnell’s forthcoming book, A Woman of No Importance, about Virginia Hall, a World War II spy. Daisy Ridley of Star Wars: The Last Jedi will play Hall. Meanwhile, Bruce Lee’s family is closely involved in a planned biopic on the famed martial artist and actor’s life, and Octavia Spencer wants to produce and star in a mini-series based on A’Lelia Bundles’ On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker. The filmmaker/actor Tyler Perry will play African American director Oscar Micheaux in a biopic being made for HBO. The film is based on Patrick McGilligan’s biography Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker. Lastly, the events that shaped J. R. R. Tolkien before he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are the subject of Middle Earth, a film project from the producers of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

The Plutarch Award Finalists for 2017

June 30th, 2017

Here are the finalists for the 2017 Plutarch Award, honoring the best biography published in 2016, listed in alphabetical order by title. The winner will be announced on May 20 at the Eighth Annual BIO Conference at Emerson College in Boston.

BIO PLUTARCH AWARD COMMITTEE MEMBERS, 2017:

Cathy Curtis
Deirdre David
John Farrell (Chair)
Anne C. Heller
Linda Leavell
John Matteson
Hans Renders
David O. Stewart
Will Swift
Amanda Vaill

Pulitzer Stirs Controversy by Awarding the Biography/ Autobiography Prize to Memoirs

June 14th, 2017

By James McGrath Morris

This year the Pulitzer Prize for “a distinguished and appropriately documented biography or autobiography by an American author” was awarded to an author who wrote neither a biography nor an autobiography. In fact, neither did the two finalists in this category. The prizewinner and the finalists all wrote memoirs.

The prize was awarded to The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar. The two finalists were In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi and When Breath Becomes Air by the late Paul Kalanithi.

Further muddying the water was that in 2016 the prize for Biography/Autobiography went to William Finnegan’s memoir, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, and one of the two finalists was also a memoir. The other finalist, Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America, by T. J. Stiles, was moved by the board to the History category and given that prize.

The Pulitzer Prize board’s selection of memoirs two years running for the Biography/Autobiography category has sparked a debate among biographers. Most believe that memoir is a fundamentally different form of writing about a life in that it does not require any form of documentation, especially the kind of research that often distinguishes biographies.

BIO’s board is requesting to meet with the Pulitzer Prize administrator to discuss the continued commingling of biography, autobiography, and memoir. Currently, the Pulitzer Prize organization is seeking a new administrator, since Mike Pride announced his retirement.

To help sort out this this issue, TBC turned to David Nasaw, the distinguished historian, accomplished biographer, and chairman of the advisory board of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at City University of New York. Nasaw is the author of three biographies: The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst; Andrew Carnegie; and The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. The latter two were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in the Biography/Autobiography category.

James McGrath Morris: You were invited to chair the Biography/Autobiography Committee in 2015 for the prize awarded in April 2016, isn’t that right?
David Nasaw: I was sort of surprised that they gave it to me, if only because I had been a finalist twice but never a winner. Of my three biographies, The Chief was never submitted to the Pulitzer committee, which was a bit of a scandal with Houghton Mifflin. The New York Times wrote about it. Houghton Mifflin just forgot to give them the book. My next two books were finalists. So, everything I say about the Pulitzers should be taken with a grain of salt, because I have a particular history with the prizes.
JMM: Nonetheless, you were chosen as the chairperson for the 2015 awards and you began work by studying the guidelines.
DN: We, the three of us who were on the committee, read the guidelines that we were given very, very, very carefully. And, we interpreted the guidelines as ruling out of competition any memoirs that were not documented. The guidelines that we were given said that for the nonfiction awards it was very important that the materials in these books be appropriately documented. And, they said that there should be some references, footnotes, endnotes, or in the text itself, which gave the reader the confidence that what was being said, or what was being reported, had actually taken place. The Pulitzer guidelines made that abundantly clear.
JMM: Did you have other things by which to guide your deliberations?
DN: In addition to those guidelines, I did a little bit of research, and we all did, on what was an autobiography. How is this defined? And, it was the opinion of the three of us that an autobiography was distinct from a memoir. An autobiography is the writing of a life by the person who lived that life. It does not necessarily have to be cradle-to-grave, but it is written to show how influences of place and time, childhood, adolescence, parenthood, affect the coming-to-age, and the activities, character, personality, and achievements of the adult. It is, in other words, a biography written by the person who is the subject of that biography.

It was our understanding that a memoir is a piece of a life, a moment of a life, a part of a life, and it is not documented. There is no corroborating material, there are no additional interviews, there are no newspaper articles, and there is no context provided. A memoir is a work—as the title makes clear—of memory. Autobiography and biographies are not works of memory.
JMM: What did you do then?
DN: So, we made our determinations clear to the administrator, who was in contact with us. And, we let it be known that after studying and applying the guidelines, we were not considering 30 percent or 40 percent of the books (I don’t know the exact number) that had been submitted under this category. When we finished our deliberations, we were asked to write a report. In it, we explained how we had made our decisions.

Twice afterwards I wrote to the administrator of the prize and I said, “We consider this very important, that the Pulitzer board has to make a decision as to what it’s going to do.”
JMM: What can it do?
DN: We recommended a number of changes to the Pulitzer board to remedy the situation we had encountered. It could establish memoir as a separate category; it could add memoir to the Biography/Autobiography category, so it’s Autobiography/Memoir/Biography; or, it could let publishers know that memoirs should be submitted in the general Nonfiction category. Whatever it decided to do, we argued against it continuing to accept “memoir” nominations in the Autobiography/Biography category because we thought that other jurors would do as we had done, would read the guidelines as we had read them, and not consider the memoir submissions for the prize.
JMM: Then the subsequent selections in 2016 and 2017 must have been a shock?
DN: You can imagine my surprise when, the following year, a book that we would not even have considered for the award, given our reading of Finnegan’s book, was given the prize. And the Stiles book, which was a biography, was moved out of the category, into History. And the second runner-up was a memoir. The following year, this year, there were no autobiographies or biographies. The prize was given to another memoir, and again the runners-up were memoirs.

So, I, having been a judge, I’m not saying the jurors were wrong to do this, I would never say that. But I will say that the guidelines are so written that one committee could read them in a way that appears to be almost diametrically opposed to the way the other committees read them. There’s got to be something wrong there.
JMM: If you were made emperor of the Pulitzer Prize, what would you do to fix this?
DN: I’d simply make a category for memoir. When these categories were first designed, there were very few memoirs. The committee has adjusted all the other awards, certainly all the journalism awards.
JMM: Very often they have.
DN: On a regular basis. Why can’t it pay the same attention to the arts and letters awards?
JMM: And you would be okay with keeping autobiography and biography together as one?
DN: Sure. Sure. And, if the Pulitzer board doesn’t want to do that, then it should add memoir to that list. The fact that Amazon puts memoir into the same category as autobiography and biography doesn’t mean that we should do the same. There has historically been a difference between autobiography and memoir. And a memoir, as we know, is not in the same genre, I don’t think, as biography.
JMM: I was a judge recently on the Western Writers of American prize for best biography. I took out a memoir from the pile of books I was to judge because I didn’t see how you could compare it to biography.
DN: That’s exactly what we did for the 2015 awards. And, I assume from looking at the judging, that’s what had happened earlier.
JMM: When you think of presidential autobiographies, they have a staff who uses all these memoirs and calendars to get the dates right. Their autobiographies may be self-serving, but still, they are biographies of their lives.
DN: Yeah. So, I don’t know what’s going on. I think it is an extraordinary disservice to memoir and to biography. Because these are separate literary genres. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. And again, memoirs are important enough as a genre in the twenty-first century, that they should have their own award.

Candice Millard Keynote Address, May 20, 2017

June 1st, 2017

Click here.

Conference Preview: James Atlas in Conversation with Patricia Bosworth

April 9th, 2017

By James Atlas

and Patricia Bosworth will discuss breaking the rules of biography and making it work anyway.

In a panel called “Biography and Style,” James Atlas . . .

Patricia Bosworth (“Patti,” as she is known to her wide circle of friends) has been a vivid presence on the New York literary scene for as long as I can remember—which is beginning to be a very long time. Her parties, held in a book- and art-filled apartment in Hell’s Kitchen that looks as if it had time-traveled from the West Village of the 1920s, are the kind where you walk in and want to talk to everyone in the room at once. Some of them are high-profile—I have spotted Dick Cavett and Judy Collins, among other “notables,” as we call them in Chicago; others were mere “writers,” but some of the most interesting ones in town. They are the kind of parties where the host has to flick the lights on and off in order to remind guests to leave.

What’s the draw? I once moderated a panel on biography in some gilded Pittsburgh auditorium with Patti, who had written a fine biography of Brando for the Penguin Lives series, and two other Penguin alums, Wayne Koestenbaum (Warhol) and Bobbie Ann Mason (Elvis). The auditorium was packed (if you want to get an audience, leave New York), and though it was some years ago now, I remember her making the culture-hungry crowd laugh and laugh at her descriptions of Brando’s outlandish behavior.

She is as fun to be with one-on-one as in front of 600 people, at once brassy and vulnerable, warm and entertainingly direct. So it is with her books: the biographies of Jane Fonda and Montgomery Clift radiate insight and empathy; the memoirs are tragic but also manage to capture the vanity of the Actors Studio where she apprenticed for a stage career in the 1950s.

Patti’s most admirable trait is her candor. At the party for her latest book, The Men in My Life, she stood up at the podium and spoke of the suicides of her brother and father with a matter-of-factness that took her well-wishers by surprise: You can’t just talk about these things in public. But she did, and I’m sure she will—about that and much, much more—when I interview her at the BIO conference in Boston this spring. Don’t miss it.