Biographies have always been controversial. On his deathbed, the novelist Henry James told his nephew that his “sole wish” was to “frustrate as utterly as possible the postmortem exploiter” by ...

In the beautiful and moving biography Janis: Her Life and Music, Holly George-Warren paints a complex portrait of singer Janis Joplin. Drawing on archival materials as well as interviews with Joplin’s ...

Robert Fulford: When a kind of intimacy happens, biography becomes a literary art We independently select everything we recommend. Buying through us may earn us a commission, which supports our work.

ALTHOUGH I WRITE biographies, as well as mini-biographies week by week in the form of The Economist’s obituaries, I’m not a great reader of them. Too often they leave me dissatisfied, feeling that ...

It's probably not true that truth is stranger than fiction, but in the hands of a great biographer, it can be just as compelling. Novelists can create unique and unforgettable characters — there's ...

With July Fourth just passed and summer vacations on the agenda this year, it is a natural time to pick up a biography of a president or political leader. But not all biographies are created equal, ...