A Companion to Literary Biography (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture Book 99)

**An authoritative review of literary biography covering the seventeenth century to the twentieth century** __A Companion to Literary Biography__ offers a comprehensive account of literary biography spanning the history of the genre across three centuries. The editor – an esteemed literary biographer and noted expert in the field – has encouraged contributors to explore the theoretical and methodological questions raised by the writing of biographies of writers. The text examines how biographers have dealt with the lives of classic authors from Chaucer to contemporary figures such as Kingsley Amis. The Companion brings a new perspective on how literary biography enables the reader to deal with the relationship between the writer and their work. Literary biography is the most popular form of writing about writing, yet it has been largely neglected in the academic community. This volume bridges the gap between literary biography as a popular genre and its relevance for the academic study of literature. This important work: * Allows the author of a biography to be treated as part of the process of interpretation and investigates biographical reading as an important aspect of criticism * Examines the birth of literary biography at the close of the seventeenth century and considers its expansion through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries * Addresses the status and writing of literary biography from numerous perspectives and with regard to various sources, methodologies and theories * Reviews the ways in which literary biography has played a role in our perception of writers in the mainstream of the English canon from Chaucer to the present day Written for students at the undergraduate level, through postgraduate and doctoral levels, as well as academics, __A Companion to Literary Biography__ illustrates and accounts for the importance of the literary biography as a vital element of criticism and as an index to our perception of literary history. Content: Machine generated contents note: pt. I The History of Literary Biography -- 1.The Emergence of Literary Biography / Jane Darcy -- 2.Lasting First Impressions: On the Origins of Ambivalent Attitudes to the Lake Poets, Cockney Keats, and Satanic Shelley / Andrew Keanie -- 3.How to Be an Author: Victorian Literary Biography c 1830 -- 1880 / Julian North -- 4.Un/making the Victorians: Literary Biography, 1880 -- 1930 / Amber K. Regis -- 5."Aerial Creations of the Poets"? New Biography and the BBC in the 1930s / Claire Davison -- 6.Literary Biography in the Twentieth Century / Dale Salwak -- pt. II Issues, Theories, and Methodologies -- 7.Ethics and Literary Biography / Craig Howes -- 8.Concerns about Facts and Form in Literary Biography / Jane McVeigh -- 9.Women with a Theory: Feminism and Biography / Kay Ferres -- 10.The Role of Diaries in the Development of Literary Biography / Paul K. Lyons Note continued: 11.Blurred Boundaries: Literary Biography, Literary Autobiography, and Evidence / James Underwood -- 12.Reading and Interpreting: The Archival Legacies of Canadian Women Writers / Linda M. Morra -- 13.Johnny and Bess: Life Writing and Gender / Anna Beer -- 14."The Man's Life in the Letters of the Man": Larkin, Letters, and Literary Biography / Rebecca Devine -- 15.J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Style in Autobiography / Emanuela Tegla -- 16.The Experience of Archives: Richmal Crompton and Others / Jane McVeigh -- 17.Disappearing into the Front Page: The Case of Salman Rushdie and the Postmodern Memoir / Madelena Gonzalez -- 18.Evidence and Invention: The Materials of Literary Biography / Emily Bell -- 19.Mustabeens and Mightabeens: The Unknowability of English Renaissance Playwrights / Kevin De Ornellas -- 20.Literary Biography, Literary Studies, and Theory: An Uneasy Relationship / Richard Bradford Note continued: 21.Estate Management: Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark / Martin Stannard -- pt. III Classic Cases -- 22.Chaucer / Marion Turner -- 23.Writing Shakespeare's Life / Lois Potter -- 24.John Donne / Tim Hancock -- 25.Jonathan Swift / James Ward -- 26.Life and Death in the Litetary Biographies of Pope and His Circle / Paul Barnes -- 27.Richardson and Fielding / Thomas Lackwood -- 28.Biography as Myth-Making: Obfuscation and Invention in Victorian and Post-Victorian Literary Biography / Jan Jedrzejewski -- 29.Dickens, Tennyson, Kipling / John Batchelor -- 30.Would the Real Mr. Eliot Please Stand Up? / Andrew Keanie -- 31.After Ellmann: The State of Joyce Biography / John McCourt -- 32.Literary Biography and the De-Canonization of Amy Lowell / Carl Rollyson -- 33.Reviewing the Lives and Works of Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis / Andrew James.

An authoritative review of literary biography covering the seventeenth century to the twentieth century

A Companion to Literary Biography offers a comprehensive account of literary biography spanning the history of the genre across three centuries. The editor – an esteemed literary biographer and noted expert in the field – has encouraged contributors to explore the theoretical and methodological questions raised by the writing of biographies of writers. The text examines how biographers have dealt with the lives of classic authors from Chaucer to contemporary figures such as Kingsley Amis.

The Companion brings a new perspective on how literary biography enables the reader to deal with the relationship between the writer and their work. Literary biography is the most popular form of writing about writing, yet it has been largely neglected in the academic community. This volume bridges the gap between literary biography as a popular genre and its relevance for the academic study of literature. This important work:

• Allows the author of a biography to be treated as part of the process of interpretation and investigates biographical reading as an important aspect of criticism
• Examines the birth of literary biography at the close of the seventeenth century and considers its expansion through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries
• Addresses the status and writing of literary biography from numerous perspectives and with regard to various sources, methodologies and theories
• Reviews the ways in which literary biography has played a role in our perception of writers in the mainstream of the English canon from Chaucer to the present day

Written for students at the undergraduate level, through postgraduate and doctoral levels, as well as academics, A Companion to Literary Biography illustrates and accounts for the importance of the literary biography as a vital element of criticism and as an index to our perception of literary history.