Life Writing/Writing Lives is a collection of ten essays that consider the practical and intellectual issues related to writing and reading
biography, autobiography, memoir, and combinations of the three. Authors of memoirs and biographies explore the complexities of their craft. Others address the theoretical side of life writing. For instance, one contributor grapples with what makes someone a "valid" subject for biography by surveying several books written about unknown or neglected women. Another contributor examines the fusion of autobiography and biography in three twentieth-century books by women
writers. Yet another essay considers how the writer Ford Madox Ford's psyche and experiences influenced the way he perceived and portrayed his life writing subjects. The final article explores the relationship between the lives of Kate Chopin and Willa Cather and their fiction. |
