Compleat Biographer Conference, May 21 2011
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B I O CompleatCONFEREN BiographerCEC2011E May 21, 2011 National Press Club, 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC Biographers International Organization Conference Organizers Officers Conference Planning Committee Nigel Hamilton, Charles J. Shields, ear Colleagues, Charles J. Shields,President Jonathan Eig Chair Vice President Barbara Fisher Board Louise W. Knight Welcome to our second annual “Compleat Biographer” Carol DeBoer-Langworthy, Alice Bonner Conference. We have a terrific program for you! Gayle Feldman Treasurer Catherine Reef Anne C. Heller Kitty Kelley DBIO is a grass-roots organization of practicing and apprentice Kitty Kelley Hans Renders biographers, the first and only one of its kind. This is our Andrew Lownie Andrew Lownie Hans Renders Barbara Burkhardt opportunity to get together, meet our elected board, set our Carl Rollyson Robin Rausch goals and spend a full day learning from each other and from Stacy Schiff the reviewers, agents, and others who help to bring our work to Will Swift Conference Site Committee Steve Weinberg Barbara Burkhardt, readers. Robin Rausch, Co-chair Advisory Council Ken Ackerman Co-chair Thanks to the hard work of our Planning and Site committees, Debby Applegate, Pat McNees we have a great selection of panels held in an apt setting; an opportunity to pitch proposals to Chair Deirdre Bair Stephen Grant agents; and, while breaking bread together during our annual lunch-time award ceremony, a chance Douglas Brinkley Kristie Miller Robert Caro Amy Schapiro to honor perhaps the most distinguished living biographer in the United States: Robert Caro. Catherine Clinton David O. Stewart Doris Kearns Goodwin Biography faces many challenges today, from a reduced attention span and ever-growing Joan Hedrick BIO Award Nomination Committee celebrity worship among readers to an obsession with self rather than others. As a result of new Michael Holroyd Will Swift, technologies, a veritable publishing revolution is unfolding before our eyes – one that will affect Justin Kaplan Steve WeinbergChair Eric Lax Kitty Kelley us all, for better or for worse. By confronting these challenges together, rather than singly, we David Levering Lewis Stacy Schiff can ensure the survival of biography as seriously researched, articulately composed, and well- John Matteson Carol DeBoer-Langworthy produced work chronicling the lives of real individuals: a craft that has been in existence since William S. McFeely Jon Meacham Program Publishing Committee Greek and Roman times. This is our commitment, then, each and every one of us: to make a Marion Meade Anne C. Heller unique contribution to human knowledge and understanding through our work. Nancy Milford Will Swift Andrew Morton Bravo biography – and, with your input, long live BIO! Martin J. Sherwin Executive Director T.J. Stiles James McGrath Morris Best, William Taubman Biographers International Organization Terry Teachout P.O. Box 33020 Santa Fe, NM 87594 Nigel Hamilton 505-983-4671 [email protected] President 2 3 Biographers International Organization Biographers International Organization Schedule Panels and Panelists 7:30–7:45am Registration Dealing with Black Holes in Your Subject’s Life 9:00–10:30AM LOCATION: HOLEMAN 7:45–8:45am Breakfast Ballroom Opening: Practicing biographers suggest research and narrative techniques to compensate for gaps in evidence, • Welcome by Barbara Burkhardt, chair of the Washington Site Committee with an emphasis on integrity. • Introduction of current and newly-elected members of the board Moderator TOM POWERS writes about how • Remarks by Nigel Hamilton people respond to the challenge STEPHEN GRANT’s fourth book, of a particular moment in • Reports by vice-president, treasurer, membership and blue-ribbon committees Peter Strickland:, was New published London history and about those who • Solicitation for 2011–12 committees and new business from the floor inShipmaster, 2007 as Boston part Merchant,of a “Diplomats First Consul and to Diplomacy”Senegal series. He drive or are trapped in those is completing a dual biography of Henry and Emily Folger, 9:00–10:30am First round of workshops and panels moments: Richard Helms, founders of the Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill. who helped to create the CIA; He is a member of the Washington Biography Group. 10:45am–12:15pm Second round of workshops and panels Werner Heisenberg, who purposely failed to build an 12:30–1:45pm Lunch and Keynote Address by Robert Caro,winner of the 2011 BIO Award Panelists atomic bomb for Hitler; and Ballroom MATTHEW ALGEO is a journalist and author. His latest book, Crazy Horse, who let the U.S. , recounts the story of a secret cancer Army kill him rather than break 2:00–3:30pm Third round of workshops and panels operationThe President that Is a was Sick performedMan on President Grover Cleveland his promise for peace. 3:45–5:15pm Fourth round of workshops and panels in 1893 and of Elisha Jay Edwards, the intrepid reporter who MARC LEEPSON, journalist and historian, is the author of broke the story. In , Algeo seven books, including , Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure Saving Monticello Flag: An American 5:15–7:00pm Reception, interview with Stacy Schiff, and book signings by Stacy Schiff and chronicled Harry and Bess Truman’s post-presidential road , and, most recently, trip. His tells of the 1943 merger of the Biography , published byLafayette: Palgrave Lessons Macmillan in Leadership in March. from other authors Last Team Standing Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles. Athe formerIdealist Generalstaff writer for , he is the arts editor, columnist, and seniorCongressional writer for Quarterly The VVA Veteran, published by Vietnam Veterans of America. The Role for Fiction in Biography 9:00–10:30AM LOCATION: MURROW How to employ storytelling techniques to add suspense and drama to biography. Agent Speed Dating • 2:00 to 5:30pm (Locations booked individually) Moderator BRIAN JAY JONES, writer and biographer, spent nearly two decades working for elected officials at all levels of • A private pitch meeting with at least three agents. The meetings will occur while workshops BARBARA BURKHARDT is the author of government, including in the U.S. Senate. His first book, are underway so you may need to miss part or all of a session. But your agent schedule will be , about editor andWilliam novelist Maxwell: (University A , was hailed as the sent to you in advance of the conference ofLiterary Illinois Life Press), andThe Newis also Yorker the editor of the forthcoming authoritativeWashington Irving: biography An American of American Original literature’s first Man of , a collection of his interviews Letters and was awarded a Medal for Literary Excellence by andConversations public remarks, with William to be Maxwell published by the University Press of the St. Nicholas Society of New York. He is at work on the Mississippi in 2012. She is an associate professor of American authorized biography of Muppet creator Jim Henson for Literature for the University of Illinois Springfield, where she Random House. was named the 2007 University Scholar. She is at work on a new biography and lives in Washington, D.C. J. MICHAEL LENNON, Norman Mailer’s archivist and authorized biographer, is currently editing Mailer’s letters and writing the biography, to be published by Simon and Schuster. Lennon’s Panelists other books include (2000), a SUSAN TYLER HITCHCOCK is the author of thirteen “outstandingNorman Mailer:scholarly Works title” and in Days 2001; nonfiction books including Choice Magazine (1986); Critical Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder , and , both (1988);Essays on Norman Mailer (1991),Conversations and with Norman Mailer in Literary London Frankenstein: A Cultural History published by W. W. Norton. She works as a senior book editor The James Jones, 1963–69 Reader (2004). HeNorman is the Mailer’s past president Letters at the National Geographic Society, specializing in large- ofon anthe American Norman Dream Mailer Society and the James Jones Literary format illustrated books in science and history, many of which Society, and the Emeritus Professor of English at Wilkes contain biographical material. She lives near Charlottesville, University, where he continues to teach in the M.F.A. Program. Virginia, and works in Washington, D.C. 4 5 Biographers International Organization Biographers International Organization Book Reviewers Address Biography 9:00–10:30AM LOCATION: LISAGOR How to Organize Your Research 10:45AM–12:15PM LOCATION: HOLEMAN Reviewers discuss how they choose and evaluate biographies and what makes for an outstanding Software programs – for outlining, cross-indexing, inserting photographs and documents, footnoting – biography from the reviewer’s point of view. and beyond: how to get the most out of what you know. Moderator DAVID O. STEWART is the author of Moderator MEGAN MARSHALL is the author of (2007),The Summer a of 1787: The, which Peabody was Sisters: awarded Three the NANCY GREENSPAN, author of ROBIN RAUSCH is the author of bestsellerThe Men Who and Invented winner the of Constitution the Washington WritingWashington Award Post for FrancisWomen Who Parkman Ignited AmericanPrize, the Romanticism Mark Lynton History Prize, the , is alsoThe co-author, End of the with Certain her World: husband, The , a MacDowellA Partnership Colony in Art: history, the Best Book of 2007, and Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction, and was a finalist theLife lateand Sciencechild psychiatristof Max Born Stanley Greenspan, of four books on