Confessions of a Serial Biographer

by Carl Rollyson

Some critics rank biographers just above serial murderers. The author of this book, a self-described member of the Samuel Johnson school, doesn't share this view. An account of a life, he believes, should adhere to the truth as the biographer sees it, not to the sentiments of others.

This memoir of a professional biographer's life tells the inside story of how he became interested in his subjects and reveals the mechanics of the how to assemble proposals for publishers, conduct interviews and archival research, and joust with editors, subjects, and their literary estates. Other biographers have described their process but remained discrete, not wishing to offend their sources and supporters. This author has forgone such caution.

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Published July 26, 2016

About the author

Carl Rollyson, Professor of Journalism at Baruch College, The City University of New York, has published more than forty books ranging in subject matter from biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Lillian Hellman, Martha Gellhorn, Norman Mailer, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, and Jill Craigie to studies of American culture, genealogy, children’s biography, film, and literary criticism. He has authored more than 500 articles on American and European literature and history. His work has been reviewed in newspapers such as The New York Times and the London Sunday Telegraph and in journals such as American Literature and the Dictionary of Literary Biography. For four years (2003-2007) he wrote a weekly column, "On Biography," for The New York Sun and was President of the Rebecca West Society (2003-2007). His play, THAT WOMAN: REBECCA WEST REMEMBERS, has been produced at Theatresource in New York City. Rollyson is currently researching a biography of Amy Lowell (awarded a "We the People" NEH grant). "Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews, a biography of Dana Andrews is forthcoming in September from University Press of Mississippi. His biography, "American Isis: The Life and Death of Sylvia Plath" will be published in February 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of her death. His reviews of biography appear regularly in The Wall Street Journal, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Raleigh News & Observer, The Kansas City Star, and The New Criterion. He is currently advisory editor for the Hollywood Legends series published by the University Press of Mississippi. He welcomes queries from those interested in contributing to the series. Read his column, "Biographology," that appears every two weeks at bibliobuffet.com

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confessions of a Serial Biographer is essential reading for anyone interested in how biographers work. Carl Rollyson is one of the finest biographers of his age and this memoir provides the intriguing backstory of his work, including glimpses into the lives he has chronicled, including Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, and Norman Mailer, among others. As Rollyson exclaims, his charge is “to rip the veneer off the works and days of biographers’ lives.” Confessions reveals both the inside story and the behind-the-scenes of the art and craft of writing and the writing life.

Rollyson’s insider perspective provides a rare glimpse into how biographers go about piecing together a subject’s life. The book is like having a one-on-one tutoring session with one of the genre’s masters. Readers interested in how biographies get made will find Confessions a true masterpiece.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting "nuts and bolts" book on writing biography. Part memoir and part how to, this will serve beginning as well as advanced scribbler.

[Anne Wellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A riveting if salutary ride through the perils of writing biography: the rejections from publishers, the unanswered letters to potential subjects and their entourage, the subjects' interference, changes of mind and even venom, the not infrequent hostility of a biography's reception or its total failure to change the way the subject is perceived. But at the same time Carl Rollyson conveys the passion of writing biography, the thrill of the detective work and the joy of plundering new sources. For me there were new and useful ideas about the independent biographer versus the authorized, and fascinating background detail about publishing and legalities. There's possibly too much detail, even for a fellow biographer eager for advice, but I found myself reading much of it extremely closely - particularly Rollyson's encounter with the deeply scary Susan Sontag. A fascinating journey into an often neglected area of literature.