Biography

There is properly no history; only biography

There is properly no history; only biography

The best biographies leave their readers with a sense of having all but entered into a second life and of read more

The best biographies leave their readers with a sense of having all but entered into a second life and of having come to know another human being in some ways better than he knew himself.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

Biography is the only true history

Biography is the only true history

"Reading history is good for all of us," he says, not surprisingly, perhaps, but his rationale is a fresh, somewhat read more

"Reading history is good for all of us," he says, not surprisingly, perhaps, but his rationale is a fresh, somewhat bracing thought: "If you know history, you know that there is no such thing as a self-made man or self-made woman. We are shaped by people we have never met. Yes, reading history will make you a better citizen and more appreciative of the law, and of freedom, and of how the economy works or doesn't work, but it is also an immense pleasure—the way art is, or music is, or poetry is. And it's never stale."

Once the implicit aim of biography was to uplift now it is to unveil.

Once the implicit aim of biography was to uplift now it is to unveil.

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks read more

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks gagged through his own biography.

Benito Mussolini is being put through the grinder of a television biography and the result resembles Italian sausage-of the spicy read more

Benito Mussolini is being put through the grinder of a television biography and the result resembles Italian sausage-of the spicy variety.

I can find my biography in every fable that I read

I can find my biography in every fable that I read