Literary Biography: An Introduction illustrates and accounts for the literary genre that merges historical facts with the conventions of narrative while revealing how the biographical context can enrich the study of canonical authors. Provides up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of issues and controversies in life writing, a rapidly growing field of study Offers a valuable biographical and historical context for the study of major classic and contemporary authors Features an interview with Wilfred Owen's biographer, Dominic Hibberd; a gallery of literary portraits with commentaries; close readings that illustrate the differences between fiction and biography; speculation about likely future developments; and detailed suggestions for further reading

Literary Biography: An Introduction illustrates and accountsfor the literary genre that merges historical facts with theconventions of narrative while revealing how the biographicalcontext can enrich the study of canonical authors.* Provides up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of issues andcontroversies in life writing, a rapidly growing field ofstudy* Offers a valuable biographical and historical context for thestudy of major classic and contemporary authors* Features an interview with Wilfred Owen's biographer, DominicHibberd; a gallery of literary portraits with commentaries; closereadings that illustrate the differences between fiction andbiography; speculation about likely future developments; anddetailed suggestions for further reading

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Literary Biography Now and ThenThe Cinderella of Literary StudiesThe Rise and Rise of Literary BiographyDr Johnson: Biographer, Theorist and SubjectVirginia Woolf: Time, Memory and Identity2. Life [Hi]Stories: Telling TalesAspects of Narrative(i) Beginnings: Charlotte Brontë(ii) Middles: Thomas Hardy(iii) Endings: Jane AustenThe Naked BiographerInventing the Truth3. Reading BiographyBiographer, Biography and the ReaderImagining BlakeProblems of a Hybrid FormReading Lessons4. Literary BiomythographyBiomythographyMyth-Making: The Brontë Paradigm(i) Facts: Selection and 'Spin'(ii) Fact into Fiction(iii) Fiction into Myth(iv) Myth into 'Faction'(v) Demythologising the BrontësVariations on the Theme(i) Byron(ii) Dickens(iii) Sylvia PlathConclusions5. Inferential Biography: Shakespeare the InvisibleManVirtual Shakespeares(i) The Facts(ii) The Theatrical Context(iii) The Social Context(iv) The Shakespeare Mythos(v) The Shakespeare CanonThe Implied Author: Inferential Biography(i) The Art of Love: The Sonnets(ii) Prejudice, Discrimination and the Law: The Merchant ofVenice(iii) War and the Politics of Nationhood: Henry V(iv) Language and Thinking: Hamlet(v) Art and Artifice: The TempestThe Limits of Imagination6. Literary Biography and PortraitureSister Arts(i) Biography and Portraiture: Reynolds's Portrait of DrJohnson(ii) Reading the Image: Cassandra Austen's Sketch of JaneAusten(iii) Visual Myth-Making: Henry Weekes's ShelleyMonument(iv) Celebrity Image: Thomas Phillips's Portrait of Byronin Albanian Dress(v) Visual Memoir: Joseph Severn's Portrait of JohnKeats(vi) Bardography: The Chandos Portrait of Shakespeare(vii) The Inner Life: R. W. Buss's Dickens'sDream(viii) Sisters' Arts: Vanessa Bell's Portrait ofVirginia Woolf(ix) 'To prepare a face ...': PatrickHeron's Portrait of T. S. Eliot(x) Branwell's Ghost: Branwell Brontë'sPortrait of his Three SistersArt to Order7. Comparative Biography: Dickens's'Lives'The Victorian DickensThe Modern DickensThe Post-Modern DickensLives and Times8. Literary Auto/BiographyActs of Self-Creation in Wordsworth and JoyceWordsworth's 'biographic verse'Joyce's 'artist, like the God of creation'Masks and Metaphors9. Biography in PracticeAn Interview with Dominic Hibberd, author of Wilfred Owen: A NewBiographyLiving with the SubjectImagining WilfredMatters of Life and Death10. Authorised LivesThe Life of Graham Greene by Norman SherryBernard Shaw by Michael HolroydT. S. Eliot by Peter AckroydOrwell: The Life by D. J. TaylorPhilip Larkin: A Writer's Life by AndrewMotionContemporary Lives11. Literary Lives: Scenes and StoriesDinner with Dr Johnson and John WilkesDinner with Mrs RamsayBiography and Fiction12. Biography and the FutureSelect BibliographyFurther ReadingGeneral BibliographyIndex