Essayist Joseph Epstein is a writer whose flaws are difficult to separate from his virtues. His strong sense of self, a quality that is indispensable to a writer’s voice, can often degenerate into ...

As an experienced biographer, Hermione Lee knows a hungry audience. “Readers of biography are greedy readers, with an insatiable appetite for detail and story,” writes the British scholar, a professor ...

Max Beerbohm once observed there were some writers who have been spoiled by their desire to do “important” work: “Some people are born to lift heavy weights. Some are born to juggle with golden balls.

Epstein (former editor of American Scholar and author of Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit) brings an erudite gift for portraiture to the subjects of this volume’s 40 essays. Focused primarily on figures ...

Thomas Carlyle popularised the theory that the history of the world was but the biography of great men and that it was their genius and skill that won great men power. Many disagreed, including ...

Four area students won a local essay competition, “2002 Biography of the Year National Scholarship Challenge,” conducted by Arts and Entertainment cable network and based on its “Biography” series.