One winter, Jill Lepore, the prolific historian and New Yorker correspondent, taught a course called “What Is Biography?” To coax her Harvard sophomores to ponder whether we can truly know another ...

‘WHAT is biography for? What useful purpose does it serve? Why should one write it? What is its actual importance in the field of literature? Above all, what is autobiography for, and what proper ...

THE art of biography, we say — but at once go on to ask, Is biography an art? The question is foolish perhaps, and ungenerous certainly, considering the keen pleasure that biographers have given us.

Each age has its own way of drawing the arc of a human life. Ours is concerned with its unpredictability. Credit...Photo illustration by Ricardo Tomas Supported by By Parul Sehgal Parul Sehgal is a ...

His single authorized biography is mired in controversy. Scholars say it shouldn’t be the last word, but they are struggling for access to his vast and in some cases inaccessible private archives. By ...