{"id":133120,"date":"2017-11-17T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=133120"},"modified":"2022-03-22T12:00:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T16:00:12","slug":"bookshelf-tour-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=133120","title":{"rendered":"Bookshelf Tour #7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nMoving on to biographies. Please ignore my wretched ceiling. I had nothing to do with it. I also lost the top shelf of my bookshelves when I moved here in February. Still room for a row of books though. I don’t mess around. <\/p>\n

So here we have: <\/p>\n

Gerald Clarke\u2019s still definitive biography of Capote: Capote: A Biography<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. I wrote about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morton Cohen\u2019s embarrassingly defensive bio of Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll: A Biography<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. I wrote about my issues with it here<\/a>. At one point, Cohen refers to Carroll as a “red-blooded normal male” or something to that effect, and I thought: Dude. You cannot get around the nude photos of little girls and you shouldn’t even try. You don’t have to condemn, because that’s not necessarily the job of a biographer, but you do need to provide context. Just tell us what happened. Don’t get all feathers-ruffled and insecure-about-masculinity on us. If anyone has recommendations for a better one please let me know. You shouldn’t read a biography and get embarrassed for the author. <\/p>\n

Then comes the only biography really of Joseph Cornell: Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Deborah Solomon. I wrote about it here<\/a>. I read it obsessively during the year I was involved in a theatre project where a small cast – plus a director and a playwright – developed a script about Cornell. We were all PAID, too. (Some photos of that experience here<\/a>.) You know what Cornell’s last words were? \u201cI wish I had not been so reserved.\u201d Heart-crack.<\/p>\n

Nancy Milford\u2019s in-depth – and essential – bio of poor Zelda Fitzgerald. Zelda: A Biography<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. I wrote about it here<\/a>. I love Milford\u2019s work. I\u2019ll follow her wherever she goes. <\/p>\n

Joan Schenkar\u2019s magnificent biography of Patricia Highsmith. The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. (Wrote about it here<\/a>.) All I can say is: do NOT miss this one. It’s unlike any other biography I’ve ever read. <\/p>\n

Noah Dietrich\u2019s fascinating little memoir on his life with Howard Hughes: Howard: The Amazing Mr. Hughes<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Richard Ellmann\u2019s James Joyce bio: James Joyce<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – the greatest biography of the 20th century, with David McCullough’s John Adams<\/a>\"\"<\/i> a close second. The Joyce bio is a towering high watermark at any rate, no matter the arbitrary ranking. I wrote about it here<\/a>. I’m so glad I read it while my Dad was here. I loved talking about it with him <\/p>\n

My battered and falling-apart copy of A. Scott Berg\u2019s Lindbergh bio, Lindbergh<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – which also deserves a spot on any Great 20th Century Bios list. I wrote about it here<\/a>. He was such a complicated man. Or maybe he was a very simple man. Either way: a riveting figure. <\/p>\n

I love the crazy gossipy book about the crazy Mitford sisters, The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Mary Lovell. Can\u2019t get enough of those wacko eccentric fascist\/Communist\/Hiter-loving\/Hitler-hating\/writing sisters. I still need to read the collection of Decca’s letters, and also the collection of all of their letters.<\/p>\n

Timothy Egan’s biography of Thomas Meighan, The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. Meighan was an \u201cAlexander Hamilton\u201d type figure – a war hero, a writer, a pamphleteer, a visionary, a guy who did everything and seemed to BE everywhere – in Irish and then American politics. What a life. <\/p>\n

And then Ron Chernow\u2019s incredible and essential Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. I wrote about it here<\/a>. Not only is it wonderfully insightful on the man himself, it is also a great history of the Industrial Revolution, the birth of the barons – oil, railroad, steel, and the Anti-Trust laws that followed. (See my recent post on Ida Tarbell<\/a>, the woman who almost single-handedly brought down Rockefeller. (I highly recommend all of Chernow\u2019s stuff – not just the Hamilton bio. He has a way of making insanely complex financial wheelings and dealings comprehensible to a woman like myself, who has a Checkings & Savings account, a tiny little 401K plan, and that’s pretty much it.)<\/p>\n

And peeking in on the right is Nancy Milford (again) with her bio of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. I love Millay\u2019s poetry (see here<\/a>) but while I was reading the book, I found a lot of it kind of shocking (and it’s hard to shock me), and I kept thinking, \u201cMy my my what an adorable little sociopath.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moving on to biographies. Please ignore my wretched ceiling. I had nothing to do with it. I also lost the top shelf of my bookshelves when I moved here in February. Still room for a row of books though. I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,28],"tags":[772,644,1688,222,529,1909,629,1850,2184,2067,635,80,2125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133120"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174669,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133120\/revisions\/174669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}