“Ironically, Henry James' biography comforts me & I long to make known to him his posthumous reputation he wrote, in pain, gave all his life (which is more than I could think of doing I have Ted, will have children but few friends) & the critics insulted & mocked him, readers didn't read him.” ThinkingChildrenLongPainKnownReaderComfortCriticsReputationBiographiesInsultedFew FriendsPosthumous Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“The most uninteresting part of the biography of a composer is his childhood. All those preludes are the same and the reader hurries on to the fugue.” ChildhoodReaderComposerBiographiesPreludeFugue Author:Dmitri Shostakovich
“Since the death of Nikola Tesla in 1943, his life has deserved a worthy biography. Bernard Carlson has delivered that in Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age, which portrays Tesla as intensely human. . . . Anyone, whether simply an interested reader or a professional historian, engineer, or physicist, will finish Tesla with a deepened understanding of his world, character, and accomplishments.” WorldHumansCharacterAgeUnderstandingReaderWorthyAccomplishmentHistorianEngineersBiographiesPhysicistInventorElectricalTeslaCarlson Author:Robert Rosenberg
“I hope any poem I've ever written could stand on its own and not need to be a part of biography, critical theory or cultural studies. I don't want to give a poetry reading and have to provide the story behind the poem in order for it to make sense to an audience. I certainly don't want the poem to require a critical intermediary - a "spokescritic." I want my poems to be independently meaningful moments of power for a good reader. And that's the expectation I initially bring to other poets' writing.” WantNeedsGivingWritingMomentsStoriesOrderReadingBehindsAudienceStudyWrittenPoetTheoryReaderExpectationsCriticalMeaningfulMake SenseBiographiesPoetry ReadingCritical TheoryMeaningful Moments Author:Albert Goldbarth
“Like when you pick up a book and you don't realize what type of text it is - it could be an essay, a novel, a biography - and at one point you realize you don't know where, as a reader, you want to be. Where are you going with this text? What is the goal? How are you supposed to interpret what you're reading? And people's responses vary - some dislike it, and are put off by the confusion, the lack of comprehension.” PeopleKnowsWantBookReadingGoalRealizingNovelTypeReaderPicksResponseConfusionDislikeBiographiesEssaysVaryComprehension Author:Sergio Chejfec
“How much he was shaped by being in the hospital so much as a kid. Because he was sick, he was a reader, and because he was a reader, Kennedy had heroes. Because he had heroes, he went into politics. [Kennedy liked Sir Walter Scott, King Arthur's knights, and biographies of political leaders.] If he hadn't been sick, he might have been like everybody else in the family, a jock.” IfsHas BeensMightKidsPoliticalLeaderReaderKingsHeroSickHospitalsBiographiesMight Have BeenKnightsArthurPolitical LeadersJocksKing Arthur Author:Chris Matthews