Book description
Literary biography is an endlessly fascinating form, not least
because of the fierce controversies that attend the question of how
much of a writer's real life ought to be related to readers. Ian
Hamilton, a first-rate biographer who encountering his share of
adversity in writing the life of J. D. Salinger, is the perfect
chronicler of such controversies in this brilliant study, first
published in 1992, which charts the course of literary biography from
Donne and Shakespeare to Plath and Larkin. 'Such a compelling read.'
Antonia Fraser, Times 'Lively and informative, powerfully and
humorously written.' Anthony Burgess, Observer 'Surely the funniest
book ever written on the doom-laden issue of posthumous literary
fame.' Jonathan Keates, Independent
Ian Hamilton was born in 1938, in King's Lynn, Norfolk, and educated
at Darlington Grammar School and Keble College, Oxford. In 1962, he
founded the influential poetry magazine, the Review, and he was later
editor of the New Review. He also wrote biographies and journalism,
mainly about literature and football. He died in 2001.
