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
Nov 13, 2023 • 36min
Listening to Larry Lockridge, Part 2, biographer turned novelist
What happens when a biographer turns from the themes of his biography to a series of novels that are biographical and then some.
Nov 12, 2023 • 44min
What happened when T. S. Matthews decided to write the first biography of T. S. Eliot? Find out!
A conversation with Karen Christensen about her edition of Writing The Great Tom as well as her own work on a biography of Valerie Eliot.
Nov 11, 2023 • 16min
The role of place and the place of the biographer’s biography in biography
An example from my Lillian Hellman biography.
Nov 6, 2023 • 42min
Larry Lockridge discusses his biography of his father Ross Lockridge and his novel Raintree County
Listen to a fascinating discussion of how biographers deal with success and suicide and what happens when you discover details that fundamentally alter what is known about your subject.
Nov 5, 2023 • 40min
Talking with Dan Van Neste about Warner Baxter, the “accidental star”
Why is it that some important actors are remembered and not others? Find out by listening to this discussion about Dan Van Neste’s biography of Warner Baxter.
Oct 29, 2023 • 38min
The Warner Brothers: How They Became That Way
Movie making in Hollywood’s heyday, but also much that applies to today, to Netflix, Amazon, and the world of streaming
Oct 22, 2023 • 40min
Paula Broussard and Lisa Royére discuss Eleanor Powell: Born to Dance
Two biographers who befriended their subject and lived to tell an inspiring tale of a life well lived and a biography well written.
Oct 15, 2023 • 43min
Eric Laursen talks about his biography of Alex Comfort & The Joy of Sex
Sexologist, gerontologist, novelist, poet, anarchist—just some of the work that Alex Comfort accomplished, the subject of a brilliant new biography.
Oct 12, 2023 • 16min
Sylvia Plath Day by Day, volume 1: Why did I do it. What’s in it?
A podcast that reflects on how I got started on studying Sylvia Plath and why I’ve written so many books about her.
Oct 1, 2023 • 38min
A new biography of Betty Friedan and why it matters.
Rachel Shteir takes us inside of making of her Jewish Lives biography of the author of The Feminine Mystique
