Judy Blume’s Biographer Contends With How To Be as Candid as His Legendary Bestselling Author Subject

‘Judy Blume: A Life”By Mark OppenheimerG. P. Putnam’s Sons, 480 pages“Otherwise Known as Judy the Great: A Poetic Ode to Judy Blume“By Selina AlkoChristy Ottaviano Books, 48 pagesTitles of Judy Blume’s books, such as “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing,” suggest an effort to undermine the pieties of a childrens’ books that seek to shield unpleasant truths or avoid topics that might be controversial.To write a biography of Judy Blume, then, has to be just as candid and forthright. Although Mark Oppenheimer’s biography is not meant for children, the first paragraph could well be read to a child, with the proviso that the rest of the biography might be saved for another day, another year when the biography is put on the shelf with Ms. Blume’s own books.In that first paragraph, Mr. Oppenheimer lists all that Ms. Blume dreamed about becoming while growing up, including marriage, motherhood, movie stardom, teaching, or perhaps working in a library: “Because the library was where the books were.” Mr. Oppenheimer channels what Ms. Blume does for children: open up a world of possibilities, no matter the obstacles, no matter the changes of course that lie ahead. That first paragraph preserves the future for Mr. Oppenheimer’s subject, as Ms. Blume does for her readers.Joyce Carol Oates has already been on X attacking Mr. Oppenheimer’s book for including parts of the writer’s life, like her medical history, that no one needs to know. But who is to say what should be included or excluded? Ms. Oates is of the school that thinks only biographical material strictly related to author’s life ought to be published. To that I answer with Samuel Johnson’s observation: “The heroes of literary as well as civil history have been very often no less remarkable for what they have suffered than for what they have achieved; and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives and untimely deaths.”In Ms. Blume’s case, she did not even think of becoming a writer until she was nearly thirty, Mr. Oppenheimer reports, disclosing that she was unhappily married with two young children. Ms. Blume has talked about this period and has shared details about her life. Once that happens, why should a biographer leave it at that? As soon as a writer starts to invite you into her life through interviews, that included many with Mr. Oppenheimer, who has the right to police what he can then say?If you are nevertheless part of the Oates school, turn to author-illustrator Selina Alko. Her book, which Ms. Blume seems to have embraced more than Mr. Oppenheimer’s, is meant for readers ages 5 to 10, according to the publisher. “Judy the Great” invokes the kind of title usually conferred on Samuel Johnson’s heroes of civil history. An illustration to the poem, “Close-Knit,” shows Judy, her brother, parents, and grandmother all held tightly together “in the belly of the cardigan,” as the last line says.“Judy the Great” is not exactly hagiography, but it is celebratory, and not as capacious and thoughtful at the beginning as Mr. Oppenheimer’s first paragraph. You get just a hint of tension in the brother-sister dynamic, alluded to in “Close-Knit” as “siblings, opposites.” Judy’s brother is shown as thinking “he’s so funny,” playing practical jokes on their mother: “I never ever want to upset Mom,” Judy says: “Not even on April Fools’ Day. / I am no fool.”Ms. Alko’s poetry does develop a Judy Blume voice, emphasizing her drive for perfection, which begins with pleasing her mother. As the poem “Perfect” notes, she is a quiet child who “rarely got in trouble. / Little Miss Perfect.” As to her father, the poem “Rudy” extols him as the father to whom everyone confided their problems: “Judy adored Rudy / and Rudy adored Judy. / Was she daddy’s girl? / Naturally.” In these poems italics serve to carry the weight that more words would otherwise convey in a biographical narrative. The “rarely,” for example, leaves out the details that Mr. Oppenheimer puts back into the life.Biographies like Mr. Oppenheimer’s show us what is left out in the author’s own account of her life. What he puts back in will be — as it is with all biographies — a matter of revelation and contestation.Mr. Rollyson has written young adult biographies of Marie Curie and Pablo Picasso.

Judy Blume’s Biographer Contends With How To Be as Candid as His Legendary Bestselling Author Subject

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