...to her all books were the same and, as with her subjects, she felt a duty to approach them without prejudice...Lauren Bacall, Winifred Holtby, Sylvia Plath - who were they? Only be reading could she find out.
Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person who made the discovery. I find this path to be voyeuristic but not enlightening. Instead, I ask, After evolution was discovered, how did religion and society respond? After cities were electrified, how did daily life change? After the airplane could fly from one country to another, how did commerce or warfare change? After we walked on the Moon, how differently did we view Earth? My larger understanding of people, places and things derives primarily from stories surrounding questions such as those.
Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.
Some Western biographies are apologist, and do not portray the negative side at all.
The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion.
The difference between authorized and unauthorized biographies is the difference between riding in carriage or squatting in steerage.
Six-hundred-page biographies of German theologians aren't known to fly off the shelves.
