Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography

Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography

by Michael Holroyd (Author)

Synopsis

Michael Holroyd opens with a startling attack on biography, which is answered by two essays on the ethics and values of non-fiction writing. The book then examines the work of several contemporary biographers, the place of biography in fiction and of fiction in biography, and the revelations of some extravagant autobiographers, from Osbert Sitwell to Quentin Crisp - to which he adds some adventures of his own, in particular an important and unpublished piece THE MAKING OF GBS, a riveting story of deadly literary warfare.

The book ends with a series of satires, celebrations, apologias and polemics which throw light not only on Michael Holroyd's progress as a biographer, but also his record as an embattled campaigner in the field of present-day literary politics.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Abacus
Published: 06 Nov 2003

ISBN 10: 0349113963
ISBN 13: 9780349113968

Media Reviews
His views expressed with humour and elan on figures ranging from Sitwell to Quentin Crisp are a feast for the mind. * INDEPENDENT *
Holroyd is an engaging, stimulating commentator who never reduces his academic work to accessible fatuity. He is gently but firmly persuasive of the value of biography. * OBSERVER *
If anyone still doubts that biographers are proper writers, rather than mere transcribers of life's rich record, then they should read this book. * NEW STATESMAN *
He remains an eloquent advertisement for the power of biography to animate what would otherwise be forgotten. * SUNDAY TIMES *
Author Bio
Michael Holroyd is the author of numerous biographies including Lytton Strachey, Augustus John, George Bernard Shaw.