Different Lives” Conference Apply Now for the Caro Provides International Fellowship
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Subscribe to our email list Share this: November 2018 | Volume 13 | Number 9 “Different Lives” Conference Apply Now for the Caro Provides International Fellowship Perspectives on Biography BIO is accepting applications for the Robert and Ina Caro By John A. Farrell Research/Travel Fellowship. BIO members with a work in progress Did liberal scholarship, can apply to receive funding for degrading the principle of research trips to archives or to truth with postmodern theory, important settings in their pave the way for Donald subject’s lives. The fellowship is Trump’s duplicity? restricted to supporting works of Biographer Nigel biography and not works of Hamilton, a former BIO history, autobiography, or president, proposed as much memoir. in a biting address that The application deadline is launched “Different Lives,” a three-day conference on biography at the University February 1, 2019. In the spring of Groningen in The Netherlands, in late September. of 2019, BIO will award either “The White House was won . by a real estate developer committed to a one $5,000 or two $2,500 platform of misogyny, hatred of immigrants, opposition to federal government, fellowships, based on the and greed-obsessed fantasy as preferable to reality,” said Hamilton. “Americans . judgment of the panel of three . are now living with the worrying outcome of that election—especially its judges: Deirdre David, Caroline implications for the concept of truth.” Fraser, and Marc Leepson. To Trump’s “Orwellian suppression of truthfulness” has roots in postwar apply, click here. postmodern and deconstructionist theories, Hamilton contended. Laudably, he said, The Caro Fellowship, first biographers have resisted the call. awarded in 2018, is given in Organized by Hans Renders’s team at the Biography Institute in Groningen, honor of Robert and Ina Caro, with support from BIO and the Biography Society in France, the conference lured whose work demonstrates the biographers from four continents and 18 countries. crucial importance of depicting a The keynote address was given by British biographer Richard Holmes, winner sense of place in delineating of the 2018 BIO Award. The Dutch Biography Prize was given to Onno Blom, for character. his book on artist and writer Jan Wolkers. And the conference attendees were treated, midway through the program, to author Nick Weber’s stately, successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on the painter Piet Mondrian. BIO member Carl Rollyson spoke on the art of presidential biography. Writers First-time from Iran, Russia, and Vietnam reminded attendees to not take for granted the Biographers, immeasurable value of artistic freedom. Lindie Koorts of South Africa and Spain’s Apply Now for Maria Jesus Gonzalez gave instructive talks on how contemporary political issues affect the choices and interpretations made by biographers in their two countries. the Rowley Hamilton addressed issues of truthfulness and politics as well. We are “now Prize confronting the effects of American cultural decay” symbolized by “a reckless administration of willful know-nothings,” he said, in a talk titled “Truth, Lies, and BIO is accepting applications for Fake Truth: The Future of Biography.” the Hazel Rowley Prize. The prize rewards a first-time Drawing from his own biographer with: funding (the writings and experience, and $2,000 award); a careful reading quoting from critic Michiko from an established agent; one Kakutani’s book, The Death year’s membership in BIO (along of Truth: Notes on Falsehood with registration for the annual in the Age of Trump, Hamilton traced a line from the more extreme forms of Biographers International poststructuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism—that paint history, political Organization Conference); and verities, and at times science as social constructions—to today’s “fake news” publicity for the author and climate. project through the BIO website, With a few exceptions, biographers have resisted, Hamilton said. In the The Biographer’s Craft discipline, “truth has remained a red line,” he contended, a reason that readers have newsletter, etc. The prize is a turned to biography in its recent golden age, for its reliance on “verifiable facts.” way for BIO—an organization of Biographers “hewed to what was biography’s lifeblood: non-fiction,” he said, biographers, agents, editors, and and “were pressed to work harder than ever in their search of the truth about real biography devotees—to advance individuals. Where footnotes and endnotes had once been considered de trop in its mission and extend its reach biography, they now became mandatory.” to talented new practitioners. Biographers, resisting the lure of postmodern theory, are now “willing to work The prize is open to all first- harder to find and authenticate sources, do new interviews, challenge and update time biographers anywhere in the earlier accounts—to do, in short, the intense forensic research . footnoted and world who are writing in endnoted, that had once been the prerogative of the academic historian.” English; who are working on a Joanny Moulin, the president of the Biography Society and a member of BIO’s biography that has not been Advisory Council, replied in part to Hamilton in his own talk on biography. “My commissioned, contracted, or take on biography is theoretical, because I am French,” he said wryly. Biographers self-published; and who have may resist the extreme interpretations—and extreme criticism—of postmodern never published a book-length theory, Moulin said, but it is foolish to say that social constructs and other forces biography, history, or work of don’t guide the lives and choices of individuals. narrative nonfiction. Biography Biographers cannot close their eyes to the implications and insights of modern is defined for this prize as a theory, Moulin contended. The notion that we can “go back to the good old days— narrative of an individual’s life this is nonsense,” he said. or the story of a group of lives. Lectures about the culture of biography in Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, and Innovative ways of treating a life Indonesia were alternated by roundtables. During these discussions, there was a (or lives) will be considered at lively debate on propositions about censorship, the reception of biography, and the the committee’s discretion. relationship between biography and history. Finally, David Veltman made some Memoirs, however, are not remarks about the political impact of artists’ biographies in Belgium. eligible. This well-attended conference was prepared to the very detail by Hans Renders Learn more about the prize (another member of BIO’s Advisory Council), Madelon Nanninga-Franssen, and and the application process here. David Veltman. During the farewell dinner, they were frequently called upon to organize such an event again. John Farrell is the author of biographies of Tip O’Neill, Clarence Darrow, and Richard Nixon. Biography Demonstrates the Power of Oratory By Jane Lincoln Taylor, New York Correspondent Have Your Voice On October 2, the aptly named Center for the Heard on BIO's Study of Transformative Lives at New York New Podcast University (NYU) hosted a talk by David W. BIO is launching a podcast. If Blight on his new biography, Frederick you’re a writer who is willing to Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, published by be interviewed about your latest Simon & Schuster. It’s the story of a man book, please drop a note to BIO who transformed himself—and helped member Lisa Napoli, who has transform the world through his words. been working with BIO board Douglass was born a slave in 1818; after member Sonja Williams on this 20 years of servitude and nine as an escaped project. fugitive, he became a renowned writer, editor, We are particularly interested and speaker, championing the ideals of David W. Blight published an in writers of color, writers who freedom, natural rights, and human equality. annotated edition of Frederick are profiling subjects from “People still look to him for answers,” said Douglass's second diverse backgrounds, and autobiography in 2013. Blight, and his narrative shows why. Douglass upcoming books or new books was one of the most photographed and well- published in the last year. known men of his time, giving thousands of talks throughout the U.S. and Europe, in an era known as “the golden age of oratory.” The evening was moderated by Philip Kunhardt, a biographer of Abraham From the Editor Lincoln, who teaches at NYU and runs the center. Kunhardt praised Blight’s Decades ago, when I first thought superb mastery of secondary and primary sources (including a previously unknown I’d like to try to make my living as Douglass family scrapbook) and his clear, vivid writing style. a writer, I considered going into journalism. I faced one major Blight, who also wrote Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory problem, however: I dreaded and A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own doing interviews, especially in Narratives of Emancipation, spent almost a decade on this book. As Douglass person. Then I realized that himself wrote three autobiographies, one might think the biographer’s task would studying and writing history would be easy, but Blight smiled as he said, “Never trust anyone who wrote 1,200 pages enable me to overcome this introversion. Just pop into a of autobiography!” Although Douglass’s own writings were clearly a treasured library, dig up the appropriate resource, they have their limitations. Blight’s task was to “carve around them,” books or journals, and write away. evaluating not only what Douglass said (and why), but what he did not say. Over the years, though, I saw that I couldn’t avoid interviews. Biography of a Voice During my stint at Weekly Reader Blight at one point considered calling his book The Biography of a Voice, for the and for my Young Adult books, ripple effect of Douglass’s stirring words, which bring the King James Bible to some subjects were too current for me to rely on published mind, continues to this day.