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
Mar 25, 2023 • 30min
A Collector’s Item: A Dialogue About Biography
The correspondence of Carl Rollyson and Samuel R. Delany, a latter day version of Oscar’s Wilde’s The Critic as Artist, in the form reminiscent of a Platonic dialogue.
Mar 18, 2023 • 25min
The Ethics of Biography and a Confession
The ethics of biography apply not only to the biographer but also to those who choose to cooperate with a biographer and those who do not.
Feb 11, 2023 • 34min
Finding Jackie: A conversation with Oline Eaton about her new biography
Pay attention to the subtitle of Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented. How Oline Eaton deals with the making and unmaking and making of a fascinating life.
Feb 8, 2023 • 49min
Remembering a great friend & biographer with Mary Dearborn, Diana Jacobs, Sydney Stern, Amanda Vaill
We celebrate the late Marion Meade, novelist and biographer of Dorothy Parker, Buster Keaton, Woody Allen, and others by her fellow biographers and friends.
Feb 1, 2023 • 57min
The tables are turned: Author and publisher Karen Christensen interviews me!
Some penetrating questions and comments on my practice as a biography in an interview with Karen Christensen
Jan 29, 2023 • 47min
Dealing with sources, people and archive, the good,, the bad, and the ugly, with Doug Munro
My resident Pacific Islands historian/biographer, Doug Munro,, discusses the successes and failures with sources, in the archives and in person, and I respond with my own tales of horror and deliverance
Jan 22, 2023 • 47min
The History Wars! In Australia, but it happens here too. Biographers Beware
Part 2 of a conversation with Pacific Islands historian/biographer, Doug Munro, about the cross overs between history and biography, and on the polarization in Australia and here.
Jan 14, 2023 • 42min
A new biography of William Faulkner’s great-grandfather, avatar and precursor
Historical archeologist Jack Elliott explains why we need a new biography of Faulkner’s great-grandfather. Listen to an authentic Mississippi voice!
Jan 8, 2023 • 41min
Doug Munro on Biography and History: Where They Meet and Deviate
A conversation about why history was not enough for Doug Munro, and why he turned to biography, which is also quite not enough
Dec 31, 2022 • 29min
Choosing My Subjects: A Fireside Chat
A year end podcast reflecting on the contingencies of biography.
