This lecture will examine the craft of biography from the historical, ethical and stylistic points of view. Does biography possess a justification, and wherein lies its wide appeal? Is it motivated by curiosity,or something more? What are the particular challenges involved in writing the lives of poets, especially of recently dead ones? Does it make any difference if one knew the person whose life one is striving to evoke? Has the biographical form changed over time, and does it continue to mutate? What exactly are the pressures bearing down on the biographer, and how does one cope? In grappling with these questions, a few glimpses will be offered into the biographer’s study, even into his storm-tossed mind.
Robert Fraser is the author of books on Marcel Proust and Sir James Frazer, and of a widely reviewed biography of the poet George Barker (1913-1991). His biography of Barker’s close friend, the poet, surrealist and existentialist thinker David Gascoyne (1916-2001), will be published by the Oxford University Press in February, 2012. He has also written plays on the lives of Dr Johnson, Lord Byron, Carlo Gesualdo, Katherine Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he has lectured in the universities of Leeds and London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Currently Professor of English in the Open University, he is a co-author of the forthcoming History of the Oxford University Press.
