December 21, 2007
The Perils of Literary Biography
Two things can be said about the ever-popular genre of literary biography: Trade and university presses show no reticence in chipping and pulping the forests on behalf of almost any conceivable figure. And both increasingly prize conjecture over scholarship, with biographers salivating over half-baked thoughts frosted with significance and treating minor foibles as if they were as important as an author's work. That is not to suggest that personal territory can't be excavated, provided there
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