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
Sep 24, 2022 • 41min
Work in Progress: A Biography of Marilyn Chambers
The first biography of the adult film star and how a biographer goes about the research, finding an agent and publisher.
Sep 19, 2022 • 50min
A conversation to Jerry Muller about Jacob Taubes, the Professor of Apocalypse
We range over the many places and people of an erotic and intellectual life spanning Europe, the U.S., and Israel with Susan Sontag, Gershom Scholem, Herbert Marcuse, and many more radical thinkers.
Sep 10, 2022 • 46min
A talk with Beverly Gray about Roger Corman, Ron Howard, and what it takes to do a biography
How do you become a biographer? Hear one story about it and Beverly Gray’s adventures with Roger Corman and Ron Howard
Sep 3, 2022 • 39min
A Biography of Jack Ruby, you say?
Listen to Danny Fingeroth speak from an undisclosed location about his work in progress.
Aug 20, 2022 • 49min
Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and the Biographical Quest
Author Aaron Sachs discusses his book on Herman Melville and Lewis Mumford, exploring the influence of Melville on William Faulkner, the complexities of empathy in biography writing, the power of storytelling in finding meaning in dark times, and the theme of alienation in Melville's works.
Aug 6, 2022 • 38min
A talk about Jackie Ronne, polar explorer with her accomplished biographer, Joanna Kafarowski
How history gets rewritten in biographies of women
Jul 30, 2022 • 43min
Why another biography of Ernest Hemingway?
A talk with Wylie McLallen about Hemingway and the rise of modern literature, publishers of biography, and much else.
Jul 24, 2022 • 3min
Coming attractions
Polar exploration and Warren Harding as explained from an Amtrak platform in Charleston, West Virginia
Jul 9, 2022 • 26min
A conversation with Jim Dougherty about his wife’s great biography of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich
85 year old Jim Dougherty’s compelling saga about a great biography that was almost not published.
Jul 2, 2022 • 41min
A conversation with Andrew Wilson about Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Patricia Highsmith & more
Biographer Andrew Wilson talks about his work in fiction and fact, biographies and novels.
