Updike on literary biography

[Doug Millison]

...in the current issue of New York Review of Books, on the Web at
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWfeatdisplay.cgi?19990204003F

"The main question concerning literary biography is, surely, Why do we need
it at all? When an author has devoted his life to expressing himself, and,
if a poet or a writer of
 fiction, has used the sensations and critical events of his life as his
basic material, what of significance can a biographer add to the record?
Most writers lead quiet lives or, even if they don't, are of interest to us
because of the words they set down in what had to be quiet moments. [snip]
Which brings us to my own decided reluctance to be, were I ever invited, a
subject of extended biographical treatment. A fiction writer's life is his
treasure, his ore, his savings account, his jungle gym, and I marvel at the
willingness of my friends William Styron and Joyce Carol Oates to cooperate
in their recently published biographies. As long as I am alive, I don't
want somebody else playing on my  jungle gym-disturbing my children,
quizzing my ex-wife, bugging my present wife, seeking for Judases among my
friends,  rummaging through yellowing old clippings, quoting in extenso bad
reviews I would rather forget, and getting everything slightly wrong. "

Worth reading.


D O U G  M I L L I S O N  [http://www.online-journalist.com]
"I didn't remember the cherry chocolates."
    --Bill Clinton, Aug. 17, 1998