Writing Biography Historians & Their Craft potx

[...]... the history of ideas Biography matters in this Lines: 30 to 3 field too Biography is thus essential in historical analysis ——— All six historians focused on the multiple relationships that shape * 123.79001p the work of historians as biographers Their essays, which comprise the ——— chapters in this volume, explored the overlapping connections between Normal Page autobiography and biography, between truth... and their society or culture, between biographers and their [-13], (7) own society or culture, between the personal and public aspects of the subjects’ lives, and between various subjects and their legacies of historical records available to biographers By examining all these relationships, the six historians offered insights from their own experiences as biographers into the important topic of biography. .. accused modern biographers of imposing on their work their own contrived “explanatory structure.” 2 In the end, he concluded, every biography is actually autobiographical, but rather than revealing that fact to their reading audience, as true autobiographers do, they “can only get it wrong, can only lie, can only substitute their own story for the story of their announced subject.” Such chicanery renders... advised historians to exploit this human interest by using a biographical approach in their writings As a “prism of history,” biography attracts and holds the reader’s interest in the larger subject 6 If Tuchman saw biography as a tool of history, the Greek writer Plutarch, author of Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, most of which was written in the first two decades of the second century ce, saw biography. .. argument, Fish performed a service by challenging biographers to think more deeply about the value of their writing and the methods of their craft Fish’s essay will not diminish the number of biographies written or discourage avid readers from looking for the newest title As William McFeely noted, biography has always mattered, for all of us share a “basic human curiosity about our fellow humans.”... 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Writing Biography [-15], (9) Lines: 34 to 4 ——— * 467.91501p ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: PageB [-15], (9) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 1 Biography Matters: Why Historians Need Well-Crafted Biographies More than Ever Shirley A Leckie [First Page] [1], (1) Lines:... of those who grapple with the task of writing biography 18 The value of Brodie’s insight was revealed to me in the early 1980s At that time, my husband, William Leckie, and I were examining the immense correspondence of Benjamin and Alice Kirk Grierson in the Illinois State Historical Library in preparation for writing a biography of the couple that would include their children Grierson was a cavalry... Oklahoma Press, 1999), xiii–xiv 5 William McFeely, “Why Biography? ” in The Seductions of Biography, ed Mary Rhiel and David Suchoff (New York: Routledge, 1996), xiii 6 Barbara Tuchman, Biography as a Prism of History,” in Telling Lives: The Biographer’s Art, ed Marc Pachter (Washington dc: New Republic Books, 1979), 134 7 Catherine N Parke, Biography: Writing Lives (New York: Twayne, 1996), 6 8 Plutarch’s... blacks in the South 39 These new interpretations are exactly what we expect, for the writing of biography, like the writing of history, is always an unfinished business Nonetheless, whatever the persuasiveness of the new views about Grant, McFeely’s [10], (10) Lines: 63 t ——— 0.0pt Pg ——— Normal Pag PgEnds: TE [10], (10) Biography Matters 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24... life of his subject’s self-concept,” Leon Edel also reminded biographers to place their subjects securely within the historical context of their times Indeed, biography was a part of history and demanded “the same skills.” But beyond that, no subject ever lived outside of human time and history Therefore, Edel concluded, “No biography is complete unless it reveals the individual within history, within . PageBreak [-3], (3) Writing Biography Historians & Their Craft Edited by Lloyd E. Ambrosius University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln & London BOOKCOMP,. Eckersley ⅜ ϱ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Writing biography : historians and their craft / edited by Lloyd E. Ambrosius. p. cm. Includes bibliographical