A Life in Biography
Carl Rollyson
Talks and interviews about the life of biography as experienced by a biographer over forty years and fourteen biographies, dealing with subjects ranging from Sylvia Plath to William Faulkner, Marilyn Monroe to Susan Sontag, and much more.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 22, 2021 • 4h 47min
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.
May 8, 2021 • 32min
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.
May 1, 2021 • 43min
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.
Apr 17, 2021 • 36min
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.
Apr 10, 2021 • 39min
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.
Apr 3, 2021 • 39min
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.
Mar 27, 2021 • 46min
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.
Mar 20, 2021 • 48min
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.
Mar 13, 2021 • 46min
Episode 50: A talk about biography with John Matteson, author of A Worse Place Than Hell
A wide ranging discussion of the choices a biographer makes and how John Matteson put together his group of figures present at the battle of Frederickburg
Mar 6, 2021 • 32min
Episode 49: A talk with Kathleen Spaltro, Author of The Great Lie: The Creation of Mary Astor
A wide ranging of discussion of a great character actress, active in both silent and sound film, her relationships with Ronald Colman and Bette Davis, and her career as a writer of novels and memoirs.
