The author Philip Roth, who died in 2018, was not sure whether he wanted to be the subject of a biography. In the end, he decided that he wanted to be known and understood.
His search for a biographer was long and fraught — Mr. Roth parted ways with two, courted one and sued another — before he settled on Blake Bailey, one of the great chroniclers of Ameri ... Show More
Aug 2019
'Pick up the book and read': Canadian poets on the legacy of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's literary and academic career was honoured with a Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her writing explored, celebrated, questioned and critiqued the space of black lives in America, up until her death on Monday at the age of 88.
Today ... Show More
19m 24s
Nov 2022
Mark Harris on His Biography of Mike Nichols
<p><i>For the next few months, we’re sharing some of our favorite conversations from the podcast’s archives. This week’s segments first appeared in 2021 and 2019, respectively.</i></p><p>In his first two books, “Pictures at a Revolution” and “Five Came Back,” the entertainment jo ... Show More
40m 47s
Dec 2021
The best-selling author and the man wrongly convicted of her rape
<p>In 1981, Alice Sebold gave evidence that sent a man she believed raped her to prison for 16 years. She wrote about her ordeal which took place in Syracuse, New York, and the subsequent trial in her memoir Lucky. When the book was turned into a film, producer Timothy Mucciante ... Show More
28m 40s
May 2022
Brian Morton on ‘Tasha: A Son’s Memoir’
<p>Brian Morton, an accomplished novelist, has turned to nonfiction for the first time in his new book, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/books/review/tasha-brian-morton.html" target="_blank">“Tasha: A Son’s Memoir.”</a> On this week’s podcast, he discusses his mother’s ... Show More
36m 7s
Aug 2017
Brando, Robert Frost and the Other Men in Patricia Bosworth's Life
<p>Mark Twain once likened biographies to “the clothes and buttons of the man” saying “the biography of the man himself, cannot be written.” The quote is a favorite of Patricia Bosworth, a 1950s model-actor turned biographer known for capturing the lives of Diane Arbus, Montgomer ... Show More
38m 36s