Biography Archive

Gerald and Sara, Scott and Zelda, Ernest Hemingway… and Jerome Robbins - Amanda Vaill is a friend of many years, but I am also among her biggest fans --- as a biographer, she’s peerless. I came to this conclusion after reading Everybody

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — and the Journey of a Generation - 525 pages about Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon --- and this is the beach book for smart women? I'm not kidding. This book is that good. And that addictive. Just

Hannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times - We all know one fact about Hannah Arendt: In her book about Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who helped to carry out Hitler’s “Final Solution,” she used the phrase

How Georgia Became O’Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living - Anybody feel the need to know one thing more about Georgia O’Keeffe? How about Coco Chanel? And, while we’re at it, let’s throw in Katharine Hepburn. I can’t think of three women who

In Praise of Difficult Women: Life Lessons From 29 Heroines Who Dared to Break the Rules - I am a longtime fan of Karen Karbo’s books. I've praised How Georgia Became O’Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living and The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: An Autobiography in Books - In 1986, I wrote a cover story for New York magazine called “The Working Rich: The Real Slaves of New York." My focus was on Carolyne Roehm, a designer of

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman - Google "Jane Fonda +hate" and you get 680,000 results. Jane Fonda is an actress in her late 70s who had her last box office hit thirty years ago. So why is

Joan Schenkar (1942 – 2021): a writer talented enough to write “The Talented Miss Highsmith” - I met Joan Schenkar in 1970. She had graduated from Bennington, where she raised considerable hell, and as there was surely more hell she could raise in the college community,

John F. Kennedy’s “Rosebud” — could it be a book: “Melbourne,” by David Cecil? - Jack Kennedy didn’t know Martha Gellhorn, but he invited her to his inaugural ball. Why did she score that coveted invitation? Somehow he had learned about the season in 1935

Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas - His father died when he was five, leaving behind a hard-pressed family and a coal-delivery business. After school, Johnny helped out --- like, before he was ten years old, shoveling

Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life - “Life is meals,” James and Kay Salter write in their book about food and friends, and I agree. Not so much for what was served and how it was cooked,

Kafka’s Other Trial: The Letters to Felice - “Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K. He knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.” So begins The Trial. And with those 22

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley & Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley - Guest Butler Mark Hipgrave lends his voluminous musical expertise to a blues show on community radio station 4ZZZ in Brisbane, Australia. On HeadButler.com, he has shared his enthusiasm for Son House

Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music, The Definitive Life - Guest Butler Joe DePreta, a New York marketing consultant and writer on cultural trends, is a student of musicology from Sinatra to the Sex Pistols. When I was a kid, my

Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life And Times of Doc Pomus - He was short and stubby. He’d had polio at 9; he couldn’t walk without braces and crutches. To see this 16-year-old kid struggle to the stage of a Greenwich Village

Love Everyone: The Transcendent Wisdom of Neem Karoli Baba Told Through the Stories of the Westerners Whose Lives He Transformed - Richard Alpert went to India, met Neem Karoli Baba and returned to America as Ram Dass, author of the mega-bestseller "Be Here Now." He wasn’t supposed to speak about his

Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age - When I met Debby Applegate, who had graduated summa cum laude from Amherst and collected a Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale, it was clear she was super smart. Not

Mick and Keith: Never Stop: My Conversations with the Rolling Stones - If you want to see the Rolling Stones --- and they’re 70-ish now, so this really could be the last time --- prepare to break the bank. To sit behind the

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War - Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, died on June 16, 2023 at 92.  The publisher called it a Young Adult book. It’s better than that: a National Book Award

Mozart -     February 27, 2006: Mozart's 250th birthday. He's looking good for someone his