Judy Blume’s Biographer Contends With How To Be as Candid as His Bestselling Author Subject
‘Judy Blume: A Life’ has generated controversy over what a biographer should include or exclude.
By CARL ROLLYSON
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CARL ROLLYSON
Cape May County, New Jersey
Carl Rollyson is a Book Reviewer for the Sun.
Mr. Rollyson is the author of The Life of William Faulkner and The Last Days of Sylvia Plath. He has published fourteen biographies and has written about biography for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington, Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Criterion, and other publications.
Latest Articles
Extracting Enchantment From the Austen and Brontë Production Industries
As Jane Austen and Emily Brontë grow in popularity, two biographies look to the past to generate light.
By CARL ROLLYSON
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A Formidable Leading Lady Who Thought of Herself as a Character Actress
A new biography of Lauren Bacall captures the queenly actress but cannot penetrate her guardedness.
By CARL ROLLYSON
||Culture
‘The Trembling Hand’ Provocatively Calls Out the Romantic Poets for Perpetuating Racist Tropes
In ‘The Trembling Hand’ Mathelinda Nabugodi declares a fascination with the Romantic Poets, but takes them to task for perpetuating a ‘white supremacist ethic.’
By CARL ROLLYSON
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Two Biographies Painstakingly Seek To Understand Basquiat, but His Art Remains Elusive
Jean-Michel Basquiat introduced a street art that spoke to American culture even as he stood apart from it.
By CARL ROLLYSON
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Jazz Biographers Find Inspiration From the Digital Age and Dickens
A new biography gives Cootie Williams his due while a study of three jazz greats has the sweeping trajectory of a 19th-century novel.
By CARL ROLLYSON
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A Haunting Study of Five Remarkable Black Men Who Soared Despite Societal Challenges
Each of the subjects in Ekow Eshun’s book ‘The Strangers’ seem to be running away from themselves.
By CARL ROLLYSON
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How Biographers Unlock the Transformative Awakenings of Great Writers
Biographers are able to draw on interviews and archives to chronicle a literary life, but what can they do when their subject remains silent about their personal life?
By CARL ROLLYSON
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How a Laudable Lawmaking Drive Against Racial Discrimination Became Compromised
A new biography of Detroit Congressman Charles Diggs Jr. chronicles his crusade against racism but plays down his personal failings.
By CARL ROLLYSON
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Chronicling a Desire for Family and Freedom
A new verse biography of Henrietta Wood depicts the fight for liberty by a slave who unusually received reparations in the 19th Century.
By CARL ROLLYSON
||Culture
Robeson Bio Probes Internal Contradictions in Singer’s Defense of Soviet Union
His often overlooked wife Eslanda receives considerable attention for her own accomplishments as a journalist and political activist.
By CARL ROLLYSON
||Culture
How a Slave’s Son Fought for Black Rights in Reconstruction-Era Louisiana
In a scrupulously researched biography, Nicholas Patler traces the achievements and shortcomings of a mixed-race politician who served as governor for 35 days.
By CARL ROLLYSON
||Culture